Do you know what it is like to be poor? The world often demonizes the poor for being too lazy and unmotivated. That assumption is often very wrong, people in poverty try their hardest to escape but it is often too hard. But what if I told you it was actually our fault, Society as a whole could be doing more to help the poor. It is society’s responsibility to help those in poverty escape its clutches.
In their paper Framing the Poor, Max and Frank discuss the prominence of the pessimistic view towards the poor in recent years. They discuss Ronald Reagan and a strategy of his campaign, where he would talk about Linda Taylor, “The Welfare Queen”. She was a highly skilled con artist, who had 80 fake names and made $150,000 in illicit welfare (Max and Frank). Linda Taylor doesn't make a good name for the poor, many people despised her for cheating the system for her income while others had to actually work. However Taylor is an extreme case, and it is only probable that she had this big of a con. Taylor still became a media sensation, with many people believing that she represented the poor. This lead to a harsh attitude to the poor and the belief that they were lazy and living off welfare …show more content…
THE OTHER AMERICA by Jonathan Alter uses the Hurricane Katrina as an example of one of these circumstances. Katrina devastated New Orleans and other cities in Louisiana when it came out of the Gulf of Mexico in 2005. Katrina caused devastating floods and property damage to those in the affected areas. As the article by Alter says, this devastation lead to many in the New Orleans region finding themselves in poverty. This information is contrary to the perception of the poor being lazy shown by Max and Frank, as these people were hard working but suddenly found themselves in poverty after Katrina. The Hurricane shows the randomness of poverty and thus exemplifies why we should help others in