BENEFITS OF POVERTY

1. ‘Dirty work’  gets done. Low wage employment is meant for these types of jobs like EPWD jobs. 

2. Domestic work gets done. Not just hotels, but among the upper income classes.

3. Professional and business niches get created. Pawn shops, liquor stores, video poker establishments, payday loans, collection agencies, hotels/motels with weekly/monthly rates, even the social work profession, professors who study poverty, etc. 

4. Recycling contributions. Poverty helps with the recycling of goods and incompetent professionals.

5.  A population of poor helps uphold conventional norms. The poor more often get ‘caught’ in criminal activity, and most studies deal with crimes committed by the poor.

6. Moral distancing. Poor people are perceived as morally deviant, at the least irresponsible and insufficiently motivated. Hence policies enforcing drug testing of welfare recipients, etc.

7. Cultural contributions. Blues, jazz, country western, even rap and hip hop, have their roots in underclasses.

8. Security of social location. Poor serve as reference points–guaranteeing status of those who aren’t poor as a result of classism. 

9. Helping others achieve. The poor aid in upward mobility of other groups. Dirty work, immigration … the investment class does very well on the backs of underpaid workers.  

10. Supply of charity balls. It takes tens of thousands to raise hundreds of thousands. This makes the rich feelgood about themselves and less guilty about their hoarding of wealth.