An Expert from the Book "Down to Earth Sociology"

The Uses Of Poverty: The Poor Pay All
Herbert J. Gans
There is much more to poverty than having to "tighten your belt". In fact, sociologists that have studied the poor have found that they are faced with such dangerous and damaging social conditions that within their subculture there is a higher divorce rate, more frequent health problems, a higher rate of school dropouts, and a higher rate of crime.
As sad and horrible as this may seem, poverty has a number of functions in our society. Associating poverty with positive functions seems at first to be unimaginable. …