The Culture of Poverty-Oscar Lewis

Thesis: Oscar Lewis' article is a description of the "Culture of Poverty" how other classes perceive the poor and what it means to have this class in society.

Oscar Lewis is trying to understand poverty, he describes the poverished as being a "subculture". A subculture that is viewed differently by people of the society. Some view the poor in positively and some view them negatively. Despite the differences in views one thing that Lewis found is that poverty tends to be founded in enviroments " 1. cash economy, wage, labor and production for profit 2. a persistently high rate of unemployment and underemployment for unskilled labor 3. low wages 4. the failure to provide social, political and economic organization, either on a voluntary basis or by government imposition for the low income population. 5. the existence of a bilateral kinship system than a unilateral one and finally 6. the existence of a set of values in the dominant class that stresses the accumulation of wealth and property, the possibility of upward mobility and thrift and explains low economic status as the result of personal inadequacy or inferiority." It is Lewis' belief that if a society has these strict guidelines embedded into their way of life and daily runnings of their city poverty is inevitable. " the way of life which develops among some of the poor under these conditions is the culture of poverty.

Lewis believes that it is the standards of the culture that creates the low class "poor". These people that fall into this category clearly do not ask to be there. Even though some become content with their lives and create "their own rationale, and structure." Lewis also speaks about how the idea of poverty once in place is "perpetuated from generation to generation."

I honestly do agree with everything that Lewis is stating in this article "The Culture of Poverty." It is very important to understand this even in the economic times that we face. As we see the disappearance of the middle class and we see the rise in the working poor, we can relate to what Lewis is saying in his article. It is because of the mortgage crisis and the bank bailout that we are experiencing this economic downturn. I believe the overall idea of Lewis' article is to enlighten us on how the culture of poverty does not affect society but society affects it.