Since the rediscovery of poverty in the 60s, social programs have come and gone with little to no results being shown. Yet, no matter how much we spend, we are made to feel guilty about the impoverished people. But this needs a closer look. We need to observe how poverty and social work misconceptions affect each other.
The irresponsible poor are often featured with their kids on the front. The poor who work hard or those who got out of poverty are rarely interviewed. Another group that we usually don’t hear about are those that are abused by the irresponsible poor, like insurance companies, employers, landlords, merchants, finance companies, sanitation, chain stores, utility companies, health, and other public workers. We also don’t hear about the lower class who choose to remain immature and are found to absorb 55% of a city’s welfare, 56% of its mental health and correctional services, and 51% of its health services. Social work misconceptions also add to these statistics.
Therefore, we need to question common myths, such as whether the poor are unhappy, isolated, highly ambitious, and can’t work, if they have been paid not to work, or if they are oppressed or carried forward on goodwill of the rich. It is often said that the rich exploit the poor and get richer while the poor get poorer, which is completely false.
The modern system also claims that discrimination causes poverty, but if this were true, the Japanese and Jews would not have advanced despite being discriminated against. We often excuse crime, alcoholism, addiction, child and wife abuse, illegitimacy, gambling, promiscuity, etc, with poverty. We also consider menial work to be undignified; anti-poverty work radicalizes social workers, and social programs can help.
We can say that we have been conditioned to have double standards. It is said that there are no jobs for our poor, and yet the poor immigrants find them; our poor cannot get an education in schools, but poor immigrants do; our poor cannot start a small business in a slum, but poor immigrants do, our poor cannot get ahead despite being fluent in English. Yet, poor immigrants with limited English skills get far ahead. We also hear about disabled people performing heroic feats in order to become self-sufficient, but we don’t expect teh poor to make a fraction of teh effort.
We can understand this by using the example of picnics for poor youths from the inner city. Most of them do not have the skills or interest to make the arrangements or prepare them and are not asked to. While some show up, others don’t. Some expect everything to be done for them, and yet some more complain. Most of them have awful table manners. If there is a baseball game, there is screaming, cheating, profanity, and bullying to win.
It can cause injury, property damage, verbal abuse, fights, and annoying others nearby, thus increasing class or ethnic prejudice and even a chance of getting kicked out of the park, therefore embarrassing the staff. However, the staff will laugh off everything the next day while talking about growth, fun, and relationships.
Most social workers just speak psychobabble and spend months developing relationships with the youth. However, there is a lack of basic literature. The poor are portrayed as miserable when many of them are happy. Most social programs lack definition and management, and thus, the poor are stagnated. However, there are a few good social programs that have gone beyond the nonsense and produced results with their thankless work. However, they are criticized by the media and academia.
What Can Be Done?
- Rights of the Poor: the rights of the poor include being poor in money and rich in other things, choosing schools their children will attend, not being subjected to short-term and flashy programs, receiving their share of municipal services, being credited for raising good kids in spite of great odds, not to be patronized nor falsely pitied, not to have criminals and bums fawned over by social workers, and to not give up a greater share of their subsidies than other groups.
- Rights of Social Workers: The social workers also have rights that include holding the poor accountable to traditional values by enforcing the laws in the slums, not being tarred with guilt, being given a realistic picture of poverty, distinguishing between the deserving poor and others by holding them accountable for their behavior, to move the poor toward self-sufficiency, to use a free market approach, not to have to see derelicts sleeping around, to support work skills, business experience, education, and self-reliance, to avoid charity, job quotas, preferential treatment, and subsidies, and to require social programs be run with good business practices.
Conclusion
Social work can only be effective if it drops emotion, ideals, rhetoric, and idealism and is realistic in its approach. It should stop giving the poor reasons for self-pity, instill traditional values, and require them to work before they are eligible for counseling and job training.
