[lbo-talk] Barbara Ehrenreich

Wojtek Sokolowski swsokolowski at yahoo.com
Mon Aug 10 12:59:51 PDT 2009


--- On Mon, 8/10/09, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:


> > And while we are at this, it is quite wrong to
> attribute the "criminalization of poverty" that Ehrenreich
> describes to the action of the mythical overlords or the
> capitalist class.  I do not think the monied classes
> give a flying fuck about the poor because they are
> sufficiently insulated from them by multiple social and
> economic barriers.
>
>
> One of those barriers being jail and prison.
>

[WS:] This probably the last one and probably not that important in a greater scheme of life. Do not underestimate the informal barriers, such as the housing and transportation apartheid, the cultural divide, the segmented labor market, the geographical balkanization etc.

As to who is responsible for ciminizalization of the poor - I am not saying that the upper class is absolved, but that blaming the rich is simplistic and misleading. There are multiple layers of society that benefit from these policies, that goes well beyond the mythical "upper classes." Prisons create jobs in many remote areas so different social layers in those areas from underemployed working class to local politicos support criminalization. Also property owners in urban and other marginal areas do not want their communities to go to hell in a hand basket and cry for drastic measures to protect their quality of life - and local politicos her that. Suburban property owners fearing that public transit will bring "more crime" to their neighborhoods - and so on. and there are whole industries - lawyers, nonprofits, community development organizations, real estate developer that are tuned in to these fears.

Wojtek



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