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Poverty: deprivation, or something else?
Discussions about poverty and charity belie what we think about human nature, about the world, and about who and what causes problems. The Edge of the American West quotes a chunk of dialogue from an old film called Sullivan’s Travels, and it reveals the two main views of poverty in a clear and compelling way. Burrows is the butler character.
Burrows: You see, sir, rich people and theorists, who are usually rich people, think of poverty in the negative, as the lack of riches, as disease might be called the lack of health, but it isn’t, sir. Poverty is not the lack of anything, but a positive plague, virulent in itself, contagious as cholera, with Filth, Criminality, Vice and Despair as only a few of its symptoms. It is to be stayed away from, even for purposes of study. It is to be shunned.
Sullivan: Well, you seem to have made quite a study of it.
Burrows: Quite unwillingly, sir.
So, let’s unpack that. What’s Burrows saying, and what’s your reaction to it?
HT: Footnoted, the blog of The Chronicle of Higher Education
back to top17 Comments to “Poverty: deprivation, or something else?”
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Poverty may be more illness than lack of health, but it’s a largely self-inflicted illness.
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it’s a largely self-inflicted illness.
It’s also an illness that is largely untreated. While the government offers plenty of “drugs” to make the ill feel more comfortable, this effort is rarely a remedy to the real problem.
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Moral poverty?
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Burrows is saying he’s been poor, and that he prefers being rich…
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Some kind of poverty can be described as filthy, crime, vice and despair but this is just one kind.
I speak from experience of 3 other kinds of poverty. Once generally described as the Great Depression which was caused by an economic downturn of biblical proportions which looked like no work, no food, no rain and dust.
Another is caused by war if you are on the losing and receiving end of it. The aftermath of WW2 in Europe and Japan characterized this kind of poverty described as infrastructure destruction and death.
Another kind I am familiar with is the kind I was born to in the Ozark Mountains. This is a different kind of poverty because there were no jobs or money and everyone was poor but you could feed yourself out of a garden unlike the great depression and the dust bowl.
These 3 kinds of depression had little filth, vice and crime but all had despair.
The type of poverty in the article is associated with more modern inner city, ghetto and minorities but this kind of poverty is chronic and is by far the most difficult to fix since there is an abundance of bad character attributes to overcome. Bad character leads to failure every time adn like stupid – it is hard tro fix.
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LLama – Are you a Ron White fan?
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There is a sense in which poverty is contagious like an illness.
Burrows lists Despair as a symptom of poverty, but I wouldn’t do so. Despair is an emotional condition that a person is inclined toward and that he or she must fight to overcome. Despair takes away the drive to improve one’s situation. And despair is something that can spread throughout a group of people, because it is so easy to succumb to. Anyone can choose to have hope and to choose determination over despair. There are too many cases of people who have overcome poverty to dispute it.
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“It is to be stayed away from, even for purposes of study.”
Sounds like the attitude of many folks, including many Christians. Many of us use “you will always have the poor” as an excuse for “staying away” from the poor.
I don’t think that wasn’t Jesus’ approach, however.
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As Tevye said, it no shame to be poor, but it is no honor either.
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I’ve seen that movie, it’s a classic. The butler is pointing out poverty is no laughing matter and should not be made the subject of a lark by slumming (as the hero has decided to do).
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Kwerna is correct–it is a classic movie, and I would add, Joel McCrea–a fine actor.
The bulter was not just pointing out that poverty is no “laughing matter,” but also that making a movie about the poor would not be well advised.
The butler also said; “If you’ll permit me to say so sir, the subject is not an interesting one. The poor know all about poverty and only the morbid rich would find the topic glamorous.”
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To take part of the Burrows quote: “Poverty is not the lack of anything, but a positive plague…”
I will quibble with this one. Poverty is probably neither of the above. It is not found in a particular measurement or “lack of somethig,” nor is it a “positive plague”, but a state of mind in relation to what others seem to have.
The absense of gratitude is the presence of poverty, no matter how much you have or don’t have. Admittedly, that takes us closer to the “theorists.’
Better yet, as Forrest Gump might have said, “Poverty is as poverty does.”
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#7 Ron White,
I love Tater Salad.
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I find the butler’s view of poverty insulting and unhelpful. I experienced this view when my family suffered lay offs. The social workers often have this view. I was amazed that lack of money made one, all of a sudden, stupid and often incapable in the eyes of others. Treated this way over and over again often by those you deal with can make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can begin to accept other’s view of yourself. That can lead to despair.
Television has made a big difference in how people view what they “should” have. My husband never knew he was poor, as did many from past generations. Now even poor people have access to media that lets them know they do not have what many others have. Resentment builds. Sometimes expectations are wrong.
Whether crime is bred from poverty or vice-versa is another question. Many people have lived in poverty and never indulged in criminality.
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LLama – Glad to hear there are Tater Salad fans in Llamadom.
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When you hear the Butler make his point in the movie, you do (or at least I did) get the sense that he is advocating more respect for the poor while advising against glamorizing poverty.
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