Poverty

A New Perspective

George L. Wilber

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780813155531
• eBook ISBN: 9780813182254
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

1Introduction

George L. Wilber

Why is it that the burdens of poverty must be carried by millions of people in the United States? In the richest, best-educated, most technologically advanced nation in the world—capable of putting men on the moon—little progress has been made toward solving poverty problems. Throughout human history there have always been poor people, and it may be that there is no way in which poverty can be totally eliminated. On the other hand, there is a deep concern over poverty among many who believe that poverty can be drastically reduced. Is it that we do not know enough about the causes and processes of poverty to mount an effective program aimed at its demise? Or is it that we know enough about poverty, but that as a nation we are simply inept at planning, organizing, and manning a program to eliminate poverty? There is no general agreement about why poverty continues to plague the nation.

People in poverty are as much in evidence today as ever. In the minds of many, however, poverty has been relegated to a secondary position, behind such issues as war, population growth, pollution of the environment, and antiestablishment movements. Deprived of its crisis atmosphere, poverty is now a problem area which can be attacked with fewer pressures for instant miracles. Yet at the same time there is also diminished support for the attack on poverty. Millions of impoverished people are as much in need of help as at any time in the past, and some of their needs require urgent and immediate attention. In principle, no one will argue with the precept that direct and effective action should be applied to meet the most pressing needs of the poor. Yet there are deeply rooted dimensions of poverty—not very well understood or recognized—which respond slowly to treatment. Therefore, a major contention in this book is that these fundamental dimensions of poverty—not merely their correlates—need to be recognized and understood. As a basis for an adequate understanding, information and knowledge need to be vastly improved. This understanding then can become a basis for policies and programs to reduce poverty problems. This is not at all a novel idea, but the seriousness and incidence of poverty are such that the remounting of an attack on a long-term basis is certainly in order.

The original impetus for preparing this book was to provide a foundation for research on poverty in Appalachia. It was immediately evident that it might have applicability to poverty research elsewhere. Rather than simply to summarize old ideas, the strategy in the ensuing chapters is to synthesize from them and to develop variations on many of them. Since the concept of poverty is extremely broad, attention is necessarily directed towards specific aspects of poverty. Given the many dimensions of poverty, it remains for future efforts to treat additional facets and to elaborate on those included in this book.

In order to help clarify the perspective of this report, the following assumptions—which some will regard as unwarranted biases—are presented concerning the nature of poverty.

1. Poverty is a multidimensional object with measurable properties. A basic notion is that poverty is a system, a construct, possessing multiple properties (Torgerson 1958); these poverty properties rather than the system (poverty) are subject to measurement and analysis. It thus becomes necessary to identify the measurable properties or components of poverty.

2. Most poverty properties represent a continuum. The customary dichotomy of the poor and nonpoor is an oversimplification that tends to distort reality. Even if we think of poverty as having only one property (e.g., income), we have a continuum. The threshold between dichotomies may be convenient for program purposes, but it is not very useful for purposes of research. Undoubtedly there will be measurement problems when it comes to other poverty properties, but many of these can be resolved.

3. Poverty properties are geared to the life cycle of individuals and families. Some poverty properties are evident, or more evident, at particular age levels. To a large extent, the life cycle is an unalterable process. Some poverty properties, such as a lack of socialization, may be outgrown. Others, such as certain diseases or illnesses, are more likely in old age. The needs for services and assistance also vary with stages in the life cycle. Education and training are paramount needs for relatively young people. Job training and family planning are both relatively important for young adults but irrelevant for the aged.

4. Poverty properties for individuals and families are not identical to those for communities or regions. For analytical and program purposes alike, this nonidentity should be clearly recognized. Poverty areas cannot be defined merely by the summation of all the poverty properties of persons within the areas. Neither are the properties of individuals divorced from those of areas in which they live and work.

5. Determinants of poverty properties include background and intermediate or intervening factors. Any model designed to explain one or more poverty properties must distinguish causal chains, converging influences, and possibly spurious relationships.

6. Many poverty properties are essentially processes. A static, cross-sectional approach cannot yield a comprehensive explanation. As processes continuing over a period of time, poverty properties require explanation through models which incorporate time and change dimensions. Explanation of poverty properties of individuals may require more or less complete life history data. For communities we should have, as a minimum, measures over successive time periods.

7. Poverty properties and their determinants may be divided roughly into those subject to program manipulation and those which are not. For program purposes, those properties and determinants which can be manipulated, or manipulated easily, should be identified. Quite obviously such background factors as age or sex cannot be manipulated. Health care, schooling, and job training can be controlled and modified through programs. Suggestions or recommendations for feasible courses of action must necessarily take such distinctions into account. Although this point will not be elaborated in this book, it is critical for action programs.

A major perspective in this book is that poverty is a system, an abstraction—unmeasurable by itself—with multiple properties which are capable of measurement. The view of poverty as merely lack of income is entirely too simplistic and unrealistic. A conceptual framework for a many-propertied view of poverty is presented in chapter 2. The system of poverty is defined as the relative lack of resources and/or the inability to utilize resources. At a general level, poverty is treated as a function of resources and mobilization. An analytic scheme is suggested whereby the mobilization of resources underlying poverty properties can be handled. Thus, instead of treating poverty as a singular entity which is related to a number of additional characteristics of individuals or regions, factors “related to poverty” are brought into the system.

Since poverty problems persist without benefit of adequate theory or measures, the program-oriented users of research results have had to contend with generally inadequate information. A central thrust of this book is therefore the development of theory-based measures and analysis of poverty which should help increase the knowledge necessary to solve the problems of poverty.

The effort to construct a theory of poverty is not itself a major concern. Rather, an adequate theory of poverty is regarded as a means whereby a poverty research program can move along with a sense of direction. That is, a good theory should: (1) tell us what we need to know and why; (2) help identify the most appropriate variables and suggest measures; and, (3) provide a superstructure within which specific research tasks can be conducted. Thus, one of the functions of this book is to move in the direction of a set of interrelated propositions from which a few at a time can be chosen for empirical testing. This is the strategy for a long-range research program.

The next two chapters focus on the concept and measures of poverty. Chapters 4 and 5 apply the conceptual framework to problems of migration and to the need for services by migrants. In a similar fashion, chapters 6 and 7 examine childbearing as related to the various properties of a poverty system and family planning services as a mechanism for reducing poverty by controlling fertility. Chapters 8 and 9 shift attention to some psychological aspects of poverty. Modernism, internal-external control, and the need for achievement illustrate dimensions of motivation and capability which, if developed, can effectively enhance a person’s successful adjustment. A poverty of information resulting from inadequate dissemination of news and information via the mass media and interpersonal communications is the subject of chapter 10. The final chapter returns to problems of theory construction, measurement, and research utilization—threads that run all through the text.

2Determinants of Poverty

George L. Wilber

Poverty and poverty-related problems plague all modern societies. In recent years a number of expressions have become part of our common jargon—war on poverty, the welfare poor, the medically indigent, ghettos, and so on. Poverty itself is typically regarded as a lack of income, which in turn is related to poor housing, inadequate education, insufficient medical care, excessive fertility, unemployment, and many other depressing problems. Some areas, such as Appalachia, appear as massive concentrations of poverty. According to the Social Security Administration’s definition of poverty, the number of poor persons in the United States declined through the 1960s. However, there are indications that, under such programs as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the incidence of poverty is on the increase.

Occasionally there are serious efforts to explain why poverty continues; commissions and task forces have studied poverty problems and made recommendations (e.g., the National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty, 1967). Yet generally there is an atmosphere of “we know all the facts, let’s get some action.” Much is already known about poverty, but this report takes the position that current knowledge is incomplete and inadequate for the solution of poverty problems. As a result of this lack of knowledge, proposed solutions, plans, and policies and the implementation of public and private programs cannot be totally successful in their objectives of reducing and eliminating poverty.

The major aim in this chapter is to establish a foundation or framework for research on poverty. Despite rather voluminous literature, it is not certain that we yet have an adequate theoretical base for poverty research. There are many broad and sometimes colorful assertions about poverty, but they do not easily yield propositions which can be tested. Ideally what is needed is a system of interrelated propositions from which testable hypotheses may be deduced. The nature of hypothesized relationships between and among variables must be clear and the variables themselves must be capable of measurement.

POVERTY CONCEPTS

Almost everyone understands the meaning of “poverty” but a universally acceptable and unambiguous definition is lacking. In the absence of definitions and measurements, one is restricted to the use of simplistic concepts. For practical purposes it is easy and convenient to use an indicator, like income, as a criterion and to define poverty in terms of those who are below or above some specified threshold, for example, the $3,000 threshold. Once having restricted poverty to those with low incomes, it has been common practice to assemble a multitude of correlates, such as housing, education, employment, health, fertility, mortality, and social participation. Questions of why such factors relate to low income are seldom examined systematically. Even less frequently is there any suggestion that these kinds of factors, also, may be components of poverty. Most serious students of poverty are very much aware that a single property (income) is being employed as an indicator and are concerned about the inadequacies of this situation. Thurow (1969:20) expresses the sentiment well when he says, “Depending on usage and aims, there are many relevant definitions of poverty. There is no reason why the definitions should be the same for economic, sociological, or cultural poverty or why the same individuals should be identified under different definitions. There is also no reason why the same definition should be used for every program designed to help the poor.”

It may be added that many of us are “hamstrung” by traditional academic backgrounds which condition us to think in terms of economic, sociological, or other relatively narrow perspectives. What does it really matter whether a poverty property is considered part of the realm of some academic discipline? There should be no monopoly on properties included in an analytical model.

Further, many of the commonsense explanations of poverty are not sufficiently articulated or complete to permit reasonable examination with empirical data. The simply stated argument that people are poor because they are lazy illustrates a single-factor explanation which is unlikely to explain much of the variance. The argument that poor people are more likely to suffer ill health illustrates the problem of distinguishing antecedent from consequence. The incidence of high fertility among low income families is common knowledge, but what is known about cause-effect sequences? The main difficulty with such observations and arguments is that first, we are confining our efforts to explaining low income and, second, the arguments are bifactor statements of relationships lacking a clear causal-sequence hypothesis.

Two of the broad attempts to develop an explanation of poverty are represented by the culture of poverty and the cycle of poverty concepts. Both of these concepts consider poverty as something economic; both contribute potentially useful notions about poverty. Neither constitutes an effectively complete theory of poverty.

Oscar Lewis popularized the concept of the culture of poverty. The culture of poverty, he argues, is not merely a matter of deprivation or disorganization, but is something positive with its own rewards. As Lewis (1966:xliv) states, “The culture of poverty is both an adaptation and a reaction of the poor to their marginal position in a class-stratified, highly individuated, capitalistic society. It represents an effort to cope with feelings of hopelessness and despair which develop from the realization of the improbability of achieving success in terms of the values and goals of the larger society.” Because of its effect on children, the culture of poverty tends to be self-perpetuating. Moreover, the ones most likely to be influenced are those who come from the lower strata of a rapidly changing society and who are already partially alienated from it. Landless rural workers who migrate to cities, for example, are among likely candidates.

What Lewis calls the culture of poverty is characterized primarily by the low level of integration of and effective participation by the poor in the major activities of society. This absence of participation is explained by such factors as limited economic resources, segregation and discrimination, fear, suspicion, and apathy. Contact of the poor with jails, the army, and public relief is likely to perpetuate the basic poverty as well as the sense of hopelessness. At the local or community level, Lewis ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Determinants of Poverty
• 3 Poverty Measures as Indicators of Social Welfare
• 4 Migration and Poverty
• 5 Social Services for Migrants
• 6 Appalachian Fertility
• 7 Family Planning Services
• 8 Modernism and Poverty
• 9 Achievement Motivation and Poverty
• 10 Communication and Modernization in Appalachia
• 11 Poverty: A New Perspective
• References
• Contributors