America Debt In Poverty War

America Debt In Poverty War

America Debt In Poverty War

Posted on: December 14, 2011 - 1:45 pm
by Admin

Harrington wrote The Other America during a period in which many Americans experienced the great post-World War II economic boom. Michael Harrington provides a convincing argument about the state of poverty in America and makes a clear case that it is America’s moral responsibility to solve poverty.

Michael Harrington and the Culture of Poverty

Harrington’s central thesis argues that a culture of poverty exists in America. The culture of poverty “twists and deforms the spirit.” The culture of poverty proved “immune to progress” and their failure was not individual and personal, but “a social product.” Harrington refutes common held beliefs that Americans exist in a state of poverty as a result of their own failures.

He argues that the conservative image of the poor “racing to the relief office” is flawed. Instead, many are those that became poor after achieving pride and stability in the 1930s and 1940s. The last thing they want to do according to Harrington “is to go on welfare." Instead, Harrington places the principal blame on an ignorant American society.