Uses of the Underclass in America

Sociology 1 Abstract: Uses of the Underclass in America

Victor Xu 11/26/12 Section 1N

        Herbert Gans expresses in his essay that despite society viewing those who are in poverty to be undeserving and useless, the mere stereotype of them creates a multitude of positive benefits for the everyone else who is not poor. Gans discusses 13 specific functions: risk reduction, scapegoating and displacement, economic banishment and the reserve army of labor, supplying illegal goods, job creation, moral legitimation, norm reinforcement, supplying popular culture villains, institutional scapegoating, conservative power shifting, spatial purification, reproduction of stigma and the stigmatized, and extermination of the surplus. Despite the fact that most stigmas and labels of poor people are not accurate as a whole, it is these degrading stigmas that allow the higher classes above poverty to enjoy more benefits. The unfortunate news is that even though this latent pattern in society is brought up, little is done for change because the majority of society somewhat still favors these benefits and develops a purposive blindness to the structural causes of unemployment and poverty. But this is not to say these functions are the causes of such a stigma, it is however, possible that certain interest groups that benefit from the existence of "undeservingness" may attempt to maintain these stigmas and the idea of undeservingness for the poor. Gans believes that such labels should not morally exists, and lists several ideas that may end these discriminations such as extending the punishment of crimes to white-collar crimes, and allowing the media to deconstruct the notion of the undeserving poor by constantly bringing up facts such as "the deviant behavior among the poor is not a product of free choice but directly related to poverty". By pinpointing different benefits the poor brings to the rest of society, Gans opens a new perspective which will hopefully spur a bigger movement to eradicate the poor of their unfortunate stigma.