Problems and Solutions in the Fight Against Urban Poverty Essay

Problems and solutions in the fight against urban poverty Introduction – the advent of capitalism and the resultant economic inequality There can be no talk of modern poverty without talking first of capitalism, and as such, the capitalist model of production and the exploitation of labor is where I will begin my paper. Capitalism evolved from the feudal system, which was incorporated into western European societies hundreds of years ago. Under the feudal system, serfs worked the land and handed the surplus of their production over to the nobles, who owned the land and accumulated the surplus. This surplus was visible, occurring literally in the form of produced goods, and the feudal system was linked to the control of the state, which is how it was sustained - through the threat of force from the armies at the disposal of the nobles. The economic system later evolved into pure capitalism similar to the modern form that we are now familiar with, which involves the ownership of private property. That is, there is no longer any semblance of a communal institution and the state has been shut out from any influence on the development of this property. What this means is that the state now exists for the sake of private property, and the result is that self-interest (the interest of the individual property holder) takes precedence over communal interest. The bottom line is that those who own the most capital then have the largest amount of influence over the state, and since the state is dependent on the commercial economy, economic and institutional power now go hand in hand. The effects of this system on the worker (as opposed to the capitalist) are overwhelmingly negative. Since most workers will never accumula... ...e, Wilbert The Functional Theory of Social Stratification in Bendix, R and Lipset, S (eds) Class, Status and Power, 2nd edition, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1967 Tumin, Melvin Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis. American Sociological Review, Vol. 18, No. 4. (Aug., 1953) Marable, Manning. How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy and Society. Cambridge: South End Press, 2000. Ofari, Earl, The Myth of Black Capitalism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970 Tucker, ed, The Marx-Engels reader. New York: Norton, 1978. 2nd ed. Wilson, William J. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Woodson, Robert L., ed. On the Road to Economic Freedom: An Agenda for Black Progress. Washington, D.C.: Regenery Gateway, 1987.