Poverty: Government Funding of Social Programs

Human rights are often framed in two ways: freedom from government intervention, such as the right to free speech, and the right to access basic necessities, such as the right to adequate healthcare. The United States has traditionally emphasized negative rights, while other industrialized nations have placed greater emphasis on positive rights, including the right to conditions which support health and well-being. One proposal which has gained increasing traction in recent years is the right to a universal basic income (Hughes, 2018). Advocates arguing for such freedom from poverty suggest that it is a more beneficial way of addressing the problem of a permanent underclass than limited, conditional support such as food assistance. The idea that people will simply not work, advocates argue, is not true, given that most individuals do wish to contribute to society; a universal basic income would be a great equalizer and enable people to raise young children and study for more meaningful and necessary jobs (versus work at low-wage jobs that can be easily done by robots) (Hughes, 2018).

In the United States, work is often viewed as a universal benefit the individual, regardless of whether the work is fulfilling or needed. This is particularly true of the poor. A good example of this is while middle-class women who work are often viewed in ambiguous light as depriving their children of the benefits of maternal care, poorer women on state assistance who are unable to afford childcare and opt instead for state financial support are often demonized as lazy and irresponsible (Sidel, 2000). Such rhetoric often has an uncomfortably racist tone and is directed against single, young African-American women in particular. Sociological theory such as symbolic interactionalism can be useful in terms of understanding how the bodies of the poor, specifically of poor, black women, become symbolically coded in rhetoric used to demonize and denigrate the poor as undeserving of aid.

References

Hughes, C. (2018). Universal basic income: It’s a human right to have enough money to live on.

The Independent. Retrieved from: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/our- voices/battle-of-ideas/universal-basic-income-ubi-human-rights-money-poverty-help- living-costs-a8190326.html

Sidel, R. (2000). The enemy within: The demonization of poor women. The Journal of Sociology

and Social Welfare, 27(1), 73-83. Retrieved from: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2628&context=jssw