The Fear of Poverty

People are very ignorant towards homeless people, just how the prisoners are in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to the outside world. Society seems to view the homeless as nasty, dirty people who are drug addicts when in reality a lot of them are just in very unfortunate situations that they can't get themselves out of. Just like the rich may view the poor and the educated may view the uneducated, people are quick to judge things that they are ignorant of. I know this based on first hand knowledge and experience about how it to be

Homeless people are not always the victims that the media have portrayed them to be. The alarming fact is that many of the homeless are there by choice. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to portray all homeless people as lazy people who dont want to take care of themselves. This couldn't be further from the truth. In my experience with the homeless they are usually either in bad health, addicted to drugs, mentally ill or a combination of any of these. To compound matters worse, they are usually without any type of legitimate income to support themselves.

As a matter of fact,“[m]ost people are not aware of other realities different [from] their own and think it is a ‘social norm’ to have [basic necessities] and a ‘social abnormality’ to live in the streets” (Source A). These people fail to realize there could be a situation in which the homeless could not avoid the cause. For example, some homeless people are born to a family in poverty. According to research, poverty is the largest contributor to homelessness, and “the World Bank, as of August 2008, [estimates] 1.4 billion people live on $1.25 per day or less, and 2.7 billion people live on less than $2 per day” (Source B). Although poverty is the largest cause of homelessness and is often called ‘the silent killer’, natural disasters, in extreme measures, could cause a person to lose their life along with their home. Homelessness can become a reality also when people become evicted when their bills become high and are not paid on time. The government lacks public assistance for people who are homeless because “[e]ven though the government has provided some shelters for homeless people, overcrowding forces many [people] to live in the streets” (Source

Homelessness is basically another form of poverty except more extreme, yet society treats it as if it was on another spectrum of problems. Some in society stigmatize this population by saying things like: they’re homeless because they are drug addicts, alcoholics, they don’t want to work and just live off the government for free. What many forget to think about are the factors that have these people on the street, or the fact that they are not only experiencing personal hardship by being without a permanent residence but emotional ones as well. Add the fact they are sometimes discriminated against and excluded by society, and you will realize you are looking at one of the most vulnerable populations.

People become homeless for a number of reasons. These reasons are that create the stereotypes against those who have nothing in life. To judge people by what they do is normal. After all, what better way is there to judge a stranger by his words and his actions. The problem is when the homeless get judged wrongly, they are also treated unfairly. These stereotypes prevent the government and the society from giving the homeless the type of assistance that best suits to them. In order to clarify my thinking of homeless I have read three articles by different authors and they have different cases. These three articles discussed below and provide understanding on how the stereotypes of the homeless could be changed.

It is easy for people who belong to the economic elite to look down on those who are homeless as view them as inferior. Since the effects of homelessness may only catch their attention when they are driving on their way into work and see a man on the corner with a cardboard sign. Those in the upper class are less likely to be as tolerable towards these individuals. There opinions would lean on the side of the person-blame approach of attribution. When we consider that the majority of Americans live in the lower and middle class levels of society, the likelihood of acceptance for those who are homeless can be greater since they have more exposure in their communities to the homeless population. Individual interpretations suggest that homelessness is the result of personal deficiencies, such as substance abuse and social disaffiliation, whereas structural interpretations suggest that it is the result of systemic factors, such as lack of affordable housing and employment opportunities (Cronely, 2010). The lower class beliefs of homelessness can be directed towards the system-blame approach, feeling that the individuals are where they are as a result of a flaw in society. People who consider homelessness a structural problem are more likely to favor government action than those believing in individualistic causes (Lee, Lewis, & Jones, 1992).

Homelessness is a serious problem in our society. Every night in our nation thousands of people are on the streets. This type of behavior is considered deviant because it does not reflect the norms and values of our society. In many cases the homeless people in our country are treated as total outcasts. Many of these people have severe mental disorders. Some are victims of an economy that has failed them. One may ask how such harsh situations exist in such an advanced society. With all the money and programs created to help people it seems ridiculous that this behavior exists. In a society where people have so much how is it possible that there are still people that have so little. The homeless are humans, no different than anyone else.

Weinberger in his research on the causes of homelessness in America reports the problem of loss wages, not enough housing and medical problems as some of the cause of homelessness in America but the only cause I found for the bias if fear (Weinberger, n.d.). They live on the streets, are chased away from businesses, less frequently hired and often far away from home. The homeless is the only group that people fear in all categories: workplace, business, social, personal and home. So what are we to do?

Homelessness and poverty are no strangers to any United States citizen. On any day you are almost guaranteed to see a homeless person, whether it be a trip to a local Walmart, or a coffee shop in the city, the poverty-stricken are everywhere and completely unavoidable. In the United States there are some sobering statistics on poverty and homelessness. According to an article by Alana Semuels entitled “ The Resurrection of American Slums” the author talks about poverty in the United States. “The number of people living in high-poverty areas . . . nearly doubled between 2000 and 2013, to 13.8 million from 7.2 million” (Semuels, Par 2, 2015). When people think of homeless people they think drug-addict, or mentally insane. What they don't think

The most severe form of poverty is homelessness, which is living without a permanent residence. Homelessness refers to people who are using emergency/transitional housing and people who live in unsheltered homes, those living on the streets or in parks, abandoned buildings, cars, subway tunnels or other places that are not meant for human habitation. The homeless population has always been around in the United States. It is a social phenomenon that can be traced back from the colonial era through the present day.

There is a diversity of faces and voices that define people that are currently living in poverty. If you seen them on the street would you know them? Who are these unfortunate people? Do you think you could point them out? Where do they come from? While some impoverished people are apparent -many are hidden and walk amongst us everyday, fighting to survive, playing the societal game, and hoping to rise up and leave behind a life of poverty and despair. The impoverished is made up of people from all aspects of life with differences in age, race, color, and ethnicity. This group also includes fallen power elitists; impoverished by greed or over consumption of addiction. The issues of poverty and homelessness go hand and hand. The

Homelessness is an epidemic problem that faces many American’s and families across the United States, especially in Detroit. You may see homeless people sleeping in the underpasses of freeways or walking and sitting on street corners or holding up a sign asking for some support for their next meal. We all have seen homeless individuals and thought it was not our problem for their circumstances or maybe had a belief he/she was lying about their situation. Many of us make a choice to give money or buy food, but there are others who make a choice to ignore or overlook the homeless population. Society has placed a stigma and label the homeless population labeling them destitute by choice, but for many homelessness has become a way of life.

They are often seen as “stupid” or “lazy” etc. because of their inability to find work. Kids get made fun of at school for being poor, or not having the newest things, parents of the kids are ridiculed and seen as bad parents for not being able to provide above and beyond what their kid needs. “Poverty and discrimination are linked. Discrimination based on ethnicity, race or gender directly influences economic opportunity through a complex set of institutional effects in families, schools and work settings.” www.psysr.org (psysr poverty and discrimination pages). Poverty stricken families are discriminated against all the time, and in many different ways. This shows how unfair society is against people who struggle economically. This is because people who are poor are looked down upon like they do not matter, and are seen as charity cases. Discrimination against the poor, or people of different classes is called classism. “Classism is when someone is treated differently because of their class, or perceived class. Classism is similar in many ways to racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression.” www.classism.org (classism/ about class). Classism is a very real thing in the world. It is easy for people to assume that someone is poor and treat them like they are less than them because of them being poor. This shows that the lower class can and are discriminated because of their socioeconomic status, they are ridiculed and cut down because of it. Sometimes classism flows from people on the street to even law enforcement. “Research indicates that people living in poverty are subjected increasingly and disproportionately to a range of administrative and legal policy measures that seek to criminalize, penalize, segregate, and surveil them because of their situation. Such measures include laws that explicitly target people living in poverty (e.g., laws prohibiting vagrancy, begging and panhandling), laws and

In today's world, some only have one reason on how poverty can be explained but there are certain psychology methods that can go into depth on poverty. Throughout all the different types of countries they all experience the struggle of their economy and people being in poverty. There are different perspectives that poverty can be possibly explained and why it happens in the world. People have been announcing and declaring different possibilities on how poverty is in the world; ranging from 1938 to 1989. The different perspectives of psychology are psychoanalytic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, biological, and sociocultural.

Usually when a person thinks of the poor and the homeless, they think about those that are living and sleeping on park benches or under bridges. They think of those who are dirty, with ragged clothing, worn out shoes, and those begging or panhandling for food. The truth of the matter is that poverty and homelessness can affect people of any age, race or gender. More Americans are at the risk of poverty and homelessness today. There are many circumstances that can cause a person to live in poverty and become homeless. The lack of affordable housing, low paying jobs or lack of employment, and insufficient federal aid all contribute to poverty and homelessness.