[lbo-talk] George Will: poverty caused by lack of hygiene...

Michael Hoover hooverm at scc-fl.edu
Tue Mar 7 04:17:51 PST 2006



>>> farmelantj at juno.com 03/06/06 5:06 PM >>>
It's shocking that George Will doesn't remember the name, Ed Banfield, who was peddling the same crap almost forty years ago in his book, *The Unheavenly City*, not to speak of the whole host of "culture of poverty" theorists who preceded Banfield. What Will calls the new paradigm concerning poverty looks just like the old paradigm that has prevailed in the US since the beginning of the Republic, namely the poor are poor because they are defective in some way, whether that be having a poor work ethic, lack of native intelligence, inferior genetic heritage etc., etc. which prevent them from taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by a market economy. Poverty in the new/old paradigm is the fault of the poor rather than the inevitable result of the workings of a capitalist economy. <<<<<>>>>>

banfield wrote in above-titled book that contemporary poverty is little more than gap between poor people's limited capabilities and their inflated aspirations for upper- middle class lifestyle... mh



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