The road to Poverty

What leads poverty stricken areas to poverty?  These areas do not start off that way and evolve into poverty over the course of multiple different situations.  Often times, these areas begin as wealthy industrious neighborhoods and overtime lose their appeal.  One of the main contributors to this transformation is deindustrialization.  Deindustrialization by definition, is “a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially heavy industry or manufacturing industry.” 

For example multiple urban areas began as thriving areas with opportunities for employment.  Multiple immigrants were flooding in to these neighborhoods in order to take advantage of the opportunities that were present in these neighborhoods.  They were trying to fulfill the American dream.  As time went on, producers began to see opportunity for growth and began placing new businesses in these neighborhoods.  Competition drove many of these businesses out of the picture.  Due to the fact that many businesses began to close down, employment opportunities were being lost.  The closing down of many of these businesses left abandoned buildings, which is a huge factor leading to structural change.  This structural change also led to severe economic changes.  Since buildings were being abandoned and people were moving out huge economic change hit these neighborhoods.  Since factories were being closed down and competition was popping up around the country, individuals began to move out of these neighborhoods in order to find employment elsewhere.  Since, people were unemployed and businesses were being closed down there was no money being returned into the economy.  Less money in the economy meant less money going into the schools.

As less and less money is going into the schools, the quality of education decreases.  Individuals going through the school system often see it as pointless and not worth it.  Graduation rates in these neighborhoods are at an all-time low.  As new children enter the school systems, they follow the footsteps left in front of them.  They have no role models and no motivation to succeed.  They are surrounded by dropouts and individuals with criminal records. Often times, these schools do not have the resources or programs necessary for these individuals to succeed.  Since these children have no leadership in their lives, they require more attention in order to succeed and end up living lives of crime.  This lifestyle often contributed to social isolation.

Social isolation occurs when individuals lack contact with those considered to be normal members of society.  The fact that these individuals do not have the education necessary to succeed keeps them grounded with those similar to themselves.  Their lack of education contributes to them having minimum wage jobs.  More often than not, these individuals can only attain these types of jobs and this causes them to not have any contact with individuals in other social classes.  These individuals can not keep a job as well.  The examples set by individuals in this poverty stricken social class is that of job instability.  They see examples of tardiness, absenteeism, and just no motivation to work. 

These poverty stricken areas in the neighborhoods lead to the concentration of these urban cities.  Those that can afford to move out of the neighborhoods move to better areas of the cities.  They move out to the suburbs and get attracted those similar to themselves.  Concentration is a huge part of social isolation.  The fact that individuals move into neighborhoods with those similar to them keeps people segregated.  Often times, this prevents there individuals from seeing examples leading those in poverty stricken areas to not be able to move forward.

            Since these individuals do not have other role models and examples of how to pursue their education, job environment, and even simple manners, they continue to perform the same actions.  In a way, they continue to accept poverty.  They refuse to accept the term underclass and deny the individual characteristics that describe them.  They make no effort to progress in life.  This leads to these individuals staying in the same poverty stricken pattern over and over.

            One prime example is the city of Detriot.  ‘The requiem of Detroit’ accurately described how deindustrialization affected an entire city.  Detroit was built for two million people and only about 800 thousand people currently inhabit the city.  The city focused on factories around automobiles and when competition began to spring up, factories began to close down. Citizens began to move out of the city and the economy spiraled out of control.

            Poverty comes along with many characteristics but it did not always begin as such.  Many factors lead to this and once there, it is hard to revive these poverty stricken neighborhoods.