Word: nonpoor
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Dates: during 1971-1971
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Among the social functions performed by poverty, says Gans, is the guarantee of status to the nonpoor. The working class needs the poor to look down on; the aristocracy, by busying itself with settlement houses and charity balls, justifies its existence and proves its superiority to workers who grub for money. Beyond that, the poor "offer vicarious participation to the rest of the population in the uninhibited sexual, alcoholic and narcotic behavior in which they are alleged to participate." They have a cultural role too: Americans have taken over much music that was born in the slums, and poetry...
THEN, TOO, the state must worry about 200,000 families still living in inadequate housing. Bernard Friedan and John Meyer claim that the housing program has that "special relevance" sought so earnestly for the middle class. Both the poor and nonpoor suffer from short supply and face a continuous market- continuous in the sense that it has been unresponsive to the needs of almost everyone. Real improvement for the poor, the liberals can say, will mean real improvement for moderate income families. But to glue this housing coalition together so that both groups benefit will put a higher price...
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