Ethics: Poverty... and the American Dream [Yoo, Week 8, Substantive]

Nandy's article points out some startling facts. He claims that poverty will not be eliminated through development, and that even in the United States, 11% of the population has consistently stayed in poverty. In New York City, 25% of all children live with incomes below the official poverty line. Nandy suggests that one reason these facts appear invisible is because insensitive elites control the American power system. Or, are these statistics misleading? Can American poverty be equated with the poverty as we know it? Meaning, poverty in Asian and Africa?

When I read this article, I kept thinking of the American Dream. Particularly, I was reminded of some excerpts of Heather Johnson's book, "The American Dream and the Power of Wealth: Choosing Schools and Inheriting Inequality in the Land of Opportunity". Johnson, an assistant professor here at Lehigh, interviewed many people from wealthy backgrounds, as well as those from poor backgrounds. One consistency she found was that all individuals adhered to the vision of 'the American Dream'. It was interesting to see that for even those people of wealth who had primarily inherited their money, they believed the wealth they gained was mainly due to their hard work. Of course, we should be wise to know that even in our 'equal society', our birthright has a huge impact of how we grow up. As a society that values 'the American Dream', it's no wonder that the impoverished are marginalized in this society. If they are poor, it's only because they didn't work hard enough, right?