Cameron Wheeler

Dr. Bortz
4/15/15

Poverty: The Illusion of Separation

The image of the homeless created by political rhetoric and mass
media is used to divide the working, effectively turning it against itself. The
running theme of the past few hundred years of Western culture has been
the emphasis on individualism. The illusion of the homeless as lazy, stupid,
destructive degenerates is nothing more than a political ploy in order to
justify unemployment and further obscure the dynamics of capitalism. This
rhetoric enables the capitalist class to cut social programs that aid the
homeless, with the justification that they are not worthy of these services.
However, this illusion rests on shaky ground and requires that the majority of
people have little to no contact with the homeless. A prime example of this is
the recent push to criminalize those who provide help to the homeless, as
well as the attempts to keep the homeless out of public view by banning
them from certain areas.
The rise of poverty in the United States over the past forty years and
the exponentially increasing wealth gap are two examples that demonstrate
the importance of using a Marxist lens to analyze society. The neoliberal
agenda that has been pursued since the 1980s has continued to displace
workers and increase the industrial reserve army (raise unemployment). This

has allowed capitalists to lower real wages and increase their profits.1 To
quote Harvey directly, This is the first era in US history in which workers
have not benefited from significant increases in productivity. All the benefits
from the pursuit of relative surplus-value have accrued to the capitalist class
to produce immense concentrations of wealth and surging inequality.2 The
public narrative regarding the homeless and the poor has grown increasingly
toxic over the past couple decades. In recent years many instances have
occurred in which hostile architecture has been erected to deter the
homeless from sleeping in public places.3 This direct attack on the most
vulnerable of society is deeply disturbing.
The regulation of unemployment by the capitalist class and the
existence of a reserve labor force reinforces competition between workers,
drives real wages down, and increases profits for the capitalist. In these
ways, unemployment is absolutely integral to the capitalist system.

The States Role in Poverty

1David Harvey, and Karl Marx. "Capitalist Accumulation." In A Companion to Marx's

Capital, 285. London, New York: Verso, 2010.
2David Harvey, and Karl Marx. "Capitalist Accumulation." In A Companion to Marx's
Capital, 281. London, New York: Verso, 2010.
3 Alex Andreou, "Anti-homeless Spikes: Sleeping Rough Opened My Eyes to the Citys
Barbed Cruelty." February 18, 2015. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/18/defensive-architecture-keeps-povertyundeen-and-makes-us-more-hostile.

From a Marxian perspective the function of the state is to facilitate

class relations between the bourgeois and the proletariat. This is necessary
because of capitalisms inherent unequal distribution of wealth and the
exploitative nature of wage labor. The system of capitalism and its internal
dynamics create a social hierarchy of concentrated wealth.
The institution of public education plays a particularly integral role in
the process of reproducing the system. The notion of censorship is most
famously traced back to Platos Republic in which he defends the use of
censorship in creating the ideal city. So it is not uncommon for anyone in
power to alter the information they receive as they impart said knowledge
onto others, typically in ways that benefit the powerful. This is the inherent
structure of an education system that exists within the confines of a
capitalist system. In an economic setting in which everything in life is given a
particular measure of value or worth, the harsh reality is that the most
profitable avenues will be taken rather than the most beneficial.
By understanding Marxs assertions one can begin to see how public
institutions, such as public education (and more evidently the push for the
privatization of education), are mere reflections of the economic structure of
any given society. Hence the reason that education in the era of feudalism
was limited to land-owning nobles. Even today there are hierarchical
disparities in the education system that disproportionately affect the lower
class and minorities, who historically have already been subject to much
worse, producing a repetitive cycle that feeds the prison-industrial complex

(more specifically the school-to-prison pipeline in poor urban areas). There is

a glaring reason behind the fact that the disparities in public education
correlate very positively with low socio-economic status, both of which
correlate strongly with those who identify as black.
History determines the present, just as our tangible reality determines
our conscious potential. Our social and political lives are directly related to
the prevailing economic system of production and the institutions that are
created serve the purpose of perpetuating the cycle. Over half of children in
public schools qualify as poor.4 These children are growing up with a
disadvantage in this regard, making it much more difficult to utilize what
education is provided. Furthermore, schools in impoverished areas receive
notably less funding than schools in more wealthy areas, which further
perpetuates the unequal distribution of funds and resources.

Conclusion
In order to tackle the negative portrayal of the homeless it is
imperative that the working class spend time volunteering to aid the poor.
The simple act of cooking a meal for someone who cannot afford to eat is a
reflective process upon the dynamics of inequality. Merely by observing the
4 Lyndsey Layton. "Majority of U.S. Public School Students Are in Poverty."
Washington Post. January 16, 2015. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/majority-of-us-public-schoolstudents-are-in-poverty/2015/01/15/df7171d0-9ce9-11e4-a7ee526210d665b4_story.html?tid=sm_fb.

poor one begins to realize that the vast majority of rhetoric regarding the
poor is utterly false. Those who fall into poverty and homelessness are no
different than anyone else. Poverty is the result of the capitalist economic
system at work.
Some argue that aiding the impoverished perpetuates and reinforces
existing power structures. While this is true to some degree, alleviating the
burden of poverty in any way serves to improve the economic status of the
poor. In this regard, volunteering time and aid to the poor improve the
economic and social agency of the impoverished. In a world dominated by
the values of capitalism, the argument that aiding the poor reinforces power
structures appears to be a convoluted form of justifying inaction towards
poverty.
The rhetoric employed to devalue the poor is sensationalist at best and
dehumanizing at its worst. Those who have never experienced poverty that
comment negatively about the character of the poor invalidate the lived
experiences of the impoverished. The economic struggles associated with
poverty such as car maintenance, dental costs, overdraft fees, and health
emergencies just to name a few, further increases the difficulty of escaping
poverty.5 The high correlation between crime and poverty is cause for some
to justify labeling the poor as deviant, lazy, or destructive. However, the
5 Shannon Argueta. "12 Things That Only The Working Poor Truly Understand." If You
Only News. December 17, 2014. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/human-interest/12-things-that-only-the-workingpoor-truly-understand/.

reality is that struggling to provide the necessities of life for oneself and
ones family forces people into criminal behavior in order to remedy the
discrepancy between their income and the expenditure required to satisfy
their needs. Therefore, just as poverty is a direct result of capitalism, the
majority of crime is a direct result of poverty. Any denial that poverty is a
result of capitalism is subsequently a denial of reality.

Bibliography
Harvey, David, and Karl Marx. "Capitalist Accumulation." In A Companion to
Marx's Capital, 281. London, New York: Verso, 2010.
Argueta, Shannon. "12 Things That Only The Working Poor Truly Understand."
If You Only News. December 17, 2014. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/human-interest/12-things-that-only-theworking-poor-truly-understand/.

Layton, Lyndsey. "Majority of U.S. Public School Students Are in Poverty."

Washington Post. January 16, 2015. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/majority-of-us-public-schoolstudents-are-in-poverty/2015/01/15/df7171d0-9ce9-11e4-a7ee526210d665b4_story.html?tid=sm_fb.
Andreou, Alex. "Anti-homeless Spikes: Sleeping Rough Opened My Eyes to the Citys Barbed
Cruelty." February 18, 2015. Accessed April 15, 2015.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/18/defensive-architecture-keeps-poverty-undeen-andmakes-us-more-hostile.