Talk:Culture of poverty
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Regrettably, this is an example of the very worst of postmodern tripe that seeks to cast 'the poor' (of whom the author gives no defining characteristic) as a collective victim class that may be excused its behaviour because of attribution to a self-serving 'culture'. This piece really should be Vfd but let's see... Eddie.willers 23:16, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
- No, the article simply needs to be more clear about attributing these views to Lewis. He held these views and they were influential in shaping poverty research and policy for years afterward. The article isn't saying whether or not Lewis was correct, it's just summarizing what he said. FreplySpang (talk) 23:19, August 28, 2005 (UTC)
i'd have to agree with Spang. Cultures of Poverty are very common in this world, from capitalism. I'm a part of one.
Raccoon Fox 20:56, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
[edit] changes and recommendations
- The culture of poverty argument is not social Darwinism in and of itself, though certain modern day "social Darwinists" certainly seem to like it (I'm not entirely sure that that term can be used in this article in a NPOV way at any rate)
- Oscar Lewis did not intend to "blame the victim" for poverty; in fact he ended up with something that fell somewhere in the middle of entirely structural explanations and hyperindividualistic explanations. It was others who came later who would use the culture of poverty argument to defend dismantling the "welfare state" and social nets.
- this article could be expanded considerably, with a better discussion of the War on Poverty, the ethnographic work that directly refuted Lewis' arguments (e.g, Carol Stack's All Our Kin), William Julius Wilson, Charles Valentine, Charles Murray, Massey and Denton, welfare reform, etc.
- I removed a metric ton of unnecessary links
--Birdmessenger 14:12, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
