Low wages, chronic unemployment and underemployment lead to low income, lack of property ownership, absence of savings, absence of food reserves in the home, and a chronic shortage of cash. These conditions reduce the possibility of effective participation in the larger economic system. And as a response to these conditions we find in the culture of poverty a high incidence of borrowing from local money lenders at high rates of interest, the use of secondhand clothing and furniture, and the pattern of frequent buying of small quantities of food many times a day as the need arises.
People with a culture of poverty produce very little wealth and receive very little in return. They have a low level of literacy and education, are not members of political parties, generally do not participate in the national welfare agencies, and make very little use of banks, hospitals, department stores and museums. They have a critical attitude toward some of the basic institutions of the dominant classes, hatred of the police, mistrust of government and those in high position. This gives the culture of poverty a high potential for protest and for being used in political movements aimed against the existing social order.
People with a culture of poverty are aware of middle-class values, talk about them and even claim some of them as their own, but on the whole they do not live by them. For example, many will tell you that marriage by law, by the church, or by both is the ideal form of marriage, but few will marry. To men who have no steady jobs or other sources of income, who do not own property and have no wealth to pass on to their children, who are present-time oriented and who want to avoid the expense and legal difficulties involved in formal marriage and divorce, free unions or consensual marriages make a lot of sense. Women will often turn down offers of marriage because they feel it ties them down to men who are immature and generally unreliable. Women feel that consensual union gives them a better break; it gives them some of the freedom and flexibility that men have. By not giving the fathers of their children legal status as husbands, the women have a stronger claim on their children if they decide to leave their men. Free union also gives women exclusive rights to a house or any other property they may own.
1. According to the author, a defining characteristic of poor people is that they ________.
2. The author uses the phrase “culture of poverty” (Para. 2) to suggest that ________.
3. By asserting that the culture of poverty can be used by political movements, the author is ________.
4. Men and women in the culture of poverty who avoid legalized marriages ________.
