Hazlitt Metaphors

Money— sweeter than honey but oh so destructive. It facilitates a man’s life, while a lack of it imprisons him in the streets of penury. It raises his social status, while an absence of it leaves him unnoticed. It gives him an aura of superiority and importance among others, while a deficiency of it makes him worthless in society’s eyes. Considering these two roads, most do not take more than a second to decide to chase riches.

Imagine coming home to a house that has no warmth or food. Constantly feeling like you are in a place you can’t get out of. This is how poverty may feel to others. The expeirences from the author Jo Goodwin Parker in the story “What Is Poverty” and the McBride family from the novel “The Color Of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute To His White Mother” show that there are various effects of living in poverty that include emotional problems, adolescent rebellion, and

The sloth of governments abroad have led Utopians to pursue lives of group work rather than personal property. In Book I, Hythloday confronts the wealthy as "rapacious, wicked, and useless, while the poor are unassuming, modest

In the article, “What’s So Bad about Being Poor” by Charles Murray, Murray states that “One of the great barriers to a discussion of poverty and social policy in the 1980s is that so few people who talk about poverty have ever been poor”. He discusses how, contrary to present day, in America up until the 1950s those in positions of influence and power included a sizable amount of people who had been raised “dirt-poor”. Murray states that, because of this, many Americans with their lack of exposure to such people, they develop a skewed perspective of what poverty is. On account of this, Murray challenges the reader with several thought experiments which he uses to help the reader come to certain conclusions that convey his message.

William Hazlitt, in his essay about money, expresses his ideas about wealth while utilizing parallel structure and polysyndetons to demonstrate how striving for wealth contributes to a lower quality of life and afterlife.

Supposedly, both the individuals with ascribed statuses with hereditary wealth and the poor and homeless have equal chances to become successful although, Orestes Bronwnson in The Laboring Classes, pointed out that this is not true. “Do the young man inheriting ten thousand pounds and the one whose inheritance is merely the gutter, start even?” (219). As a result, the harsh separation of the rich and the poor, where capitalism thrives and,” the division of the community into two classes, one which owns the funds…the other provides the labor” (216). The inhumane apprehension of a capitalist society that keeps its workers “in a permanent system, [has] given preference to the slave system” (214) says a lot about the evils of capitalism corresponding with the false American Dream. An outcome of capitalism is the frustrating rivalry between the poor. “There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining the country. The competition is maddening”

While out dining with a friend Barbara Ehrenreich, a bestselling author of many books had came up with a question which would mark the start of a whole new life experience. Her question was, “how does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” The topic of poverty had greatly fascinated Ehrenreich but not to the point that she would actually want to experience poverty herself. However, this changed when the friend she was dining with suggested she should be the one to go out and experience the unpleasant lifestyle that is poverty. Upon starting this experiment she knew she had to construct a plan so she sat and began to plan out how she would be living throughout the experiment When concluding her experiment Ehrenreich argues

It seems to most that those who have money have it all. They should buy all the unnecessary “junk” that one might find pleasure in owning, take everything for granted and view lower-class individuals as a group of wanna-bes. Think again. S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, very important propositions are portrayed through the writing techniques which link to another piece of writing “Poverty and Wealth” written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Just because you have everything, doesn’t mean you understand it's worth. Different classes have different experiences, allowing elaboration on the different characters.

In “On the Want of Money”, a 19th century text, William Hazzlit presents a strong position on the role of currency in society and the ironic relationship between man and his status through use of rhetoric; such as but not limited to syntax, repetition, and imagery. In doing so, Hazzlit strengthens his argument and gives more weight to his claims that support the idea that in possession of money and lack thereof man is miserable in his ways. Ownership leaves man alienated from friends and family, to be commemorated by a lonely, seldom frequented monument of massive proportions. Austerity dictates lives, limiting those in pursuit of wealth to a constant, consuming search. In summation, the concept of money is hopeless

The comparison between rich and poor people is a topic with an enormous gap. The bridge between the two is longer than most see it, and is increasing steadily. Michael Sandel wrote a book discussing his opposition to the market society in the United States. The focus of Sandel’s book lies within the title, What Money Can’t Buy. He believes that everything seems to be for sale and that we are a society that revolves around the idea of every person for themselves. Sandel also states that inequality is rising faster than ever. Even though everything is for sale in this day and age, that does not mean everyone is able to purchase whatever they want. Inequality comes in many forms like race, gender and age. Income inequality affects

Poverty is not easily defined, because it plays out in many different ways. To be in poverty, one is generally making at most three times the amount of money they would need to sustain themselves and their family members living a minimalist lifestyle. These families tend to eat cheaper food, use public transport, have less access to good educational institutions, are exposed to harmful environments, and have less access to healthcare, among many other things. Through the lenses of conflict theory and functionalism, one can begin to understand why poverty so affects many aspects many people’s lives in ways that carry them through adulthood, and sometimes pervades later generations of their families.

Poor people is a collection of interviews with first-hand sources of those in poverty mixed with the authors, William T. Vollmann's, inner struggle and thought-process of what poverty is. Vollmann's position on poverty is stated early on in the book "For me, poverty is not mere deprivation; for people may possess fewer things than I and be Richer; Poverty is wretchedness."(Vollmann 36). Poverty to Vollman is wretchedness meaning " a condition of extreme affliction or distress, especially as outwardly apparent" (Wretched). He continues with, "It must then be an economic state. It, therefore, remains somewhat immeasurable ... I can best conceive of poverty as a series of perceptual categories." (Vollmann 36). These perceptual categories are the five categories in the book, self-definitions, phenomena, choices, hope, and placeholders.

Hazlitt describes the bleak future of those who lack money through his harsh diction. He emphasizes the challenges of living a life where one does not have the financial ability to sustain themselves. Money is required when making transactions for necessities such as food and shelter. Those without money are condemned to serving as a “thrall” or living like an “exile” while being “scrutinized” and “neglected”. Life as a thrall or as an exile is not a pleasant one, living a life under servitude or as an outcast of society. Similarly, one who lives life without money does not lead a pleasant life; it is difficult

“On the Phychology of poverty,” an article written by Johannes Hanshofer and Ernst Fehr, they form ideas based off their collaborated hypothesis. Poverty has psychological consequences that can hold someone in poverty due to economic behaviors and environment (Hanshofer & Fehr 862). These environmental situations are the leading factor of re-inforced poverty (Hanshofer & Fehr 862). The authors have also found studies that suggest poor people often have short-sided views when it comes to income prosperity and are careful when it comes to risk taking behaviors (Hanshofer & Fehr 862). Unlike the article “Some consequences of Having Too Little,” Hansofer and Fehr believe that poor people choose safe options when taking risks in their finances , as opposed to already being in financial debt and choosing to take more risks (862; Shah, Mullainathan and Shafir 684). Hanshofer and Fehr came to understand in their words, “poorer households

The logic of poor peoples purchases as they attempt to meet a wealth image they cannot obtain is obscene. It is impossible to provide for their families and live a rich lifestyle under little earnings. Stated by Isabel Sawhill, “None of this means that providing lower-income families with more money is necessarily a bad thing” (Sawhill). The political system works in a matter to benefit poor families with money they do not earn. Poor individuals complain about being poor while it is quite simple to overcome poverty and rely on a career. Pursuing a career and presenting a humble attitude can help with overcoming poverty and presenting a better reputation. Poor individuals need to visualize more than spending money on unnecessary items, work to flip their money without relying on the government, and be themselves not a false image.