Galbraith's Poor

Galbraith views poverty’s existence in modern America as something of an anomaly. “But in the United States, the survival of poverty is remarkable.” (24.) In some ways, he is right. It seems strange that a nation of such affluence, so rich in resources, and such a major player in the global economy would not be able to take care of its own members. He states that insular poverty (poverty which affects most people within an area) could be solved if only the country would “invest more than proportionately in the children of the poor community.” (19) He believes that by investing in the nation’s poor children in order to provide them with the basic services their parents can’t afford, the cycle of poverty may be broken. The problems of poverty however, go beyond allocation of resources, though resources in this nation are often grossly misused.

Though social services are very important, the priorities in this country clearly lie elsewhere. Much more money goes into the military than anywhere else. We spend more time and money trying to fix the problems of other nations than we spend protecting our own citizens. We also have a problem with “pork,” the wasting of tax dollars on unnecessary and costly projects.

Even if more money was spent on the poor however, results are not guaranteed to occur as Galbraith predicted. Providing everyone with a living wage, regardless of whether or not they are capable of holding a job, is not a very good motivation for keeping a job. Why would someone work for what they could have for free? Funneling money into schools in poor neighborhoods is a good idea, but is also not guaranteed to solve the problems of poverty. How exactly would the funds be used? Would they go towards teacher salaries or after school programs? While Galbraith is correct in pointing out that poverty can partially be blamed on the fact that people simply do not notice or care (24), there is more to the problem than that. People simply do not agree on the best way to address the problem. People look to the wasteful government spending and are skeptical of new taxes, as well they should be. Our country needs however, to again bring poverty to the forefront of the national consciousness so that these issues may be openly debated and fresh ideas may emerge for the betterment of society.