The War against the Poor (and Middle Class)

Sick Justice ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 147-154
Keyword(s):  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-112
Author(s):  
Sholihah Amalina Dyah Hapsari ◽  
Manuntun Parulian Hutagaol ◽  
Alla Asmara

The growth of the middle class in Indonesia that occurred during the last ten years allegedly raised by the economic growth that is likely to increase in the same period. An economic theory which states that inclusive growth is growth that is able to bring the middle class makes economists focus on inclusive growth and the middle class itself. But in fact, the middle class in Indonesia is dominated by the lower middle class whose features are similar to the poor. These issues indicate a gap in the economy. In addition, to talk about the gap, there is no doubt that this issue has long been a discussion in Indonesia, especially the gap between western Indonesia and eastern Indonesia. Therefore this study was conducted to analyze whether it is true that inclusive growth has occurred in Indonesia and how the phenomena that occur in the western part of Indonesia and eastern Indonesia. Based on the data from 33 provinces in Indonesia over a period of 5 years, ie from 2008 to 2012, this study of the Measured inclusive growth by adopting the concept formulated by Klasen (2010) on-Poverty Equivalent Growth Rate (PEGR). This study of the processing of data performed using Excel and SPSS software. The results found that economic growth in Indonesia in 20082012 has not been inclusive in reducing poverty, lowering inequality and increase employment. The results also show that inclusive growth is not a consistent phenomenon in Indonesia. The phenomenon of inclusive growth in reducing poverty, lowering inequality, and increasing employment are more prevalent in Western Indonesia (IBB).  Key words : inclusive, growth, middle class, panel data, excel   


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-131
Author(s):  
Leah Richards

Although the tale of Sweeney Todd is one with significant cultural resonance, little has been written about the text itself, The String of Pearls. This article argues that the text engages with anxieties about class conflict through a narrative that enacts exaggerated versions of various interactions. In the nineteenth century, critics objected to the cheap fiction pejoratively known as penny dreadfuls, asserting that the genre’s exciting tales of bloodshed, villainy, and mayhem would seduce readers to lives of debauchery and crime, but I argue that this concern about cheap fiction was not for the preservation of the souls of the poor and working classes but rather for the preservation of the middle classes' own corporeal bodies and the system that privileged and protected them. While there is no question that the narrative enacts extreme manifestations of problems facing the urban poor—among them, contaminated or even poisonous foodstuffs and the perils of urban anonymity—it also features an intractable and rapacious lower class and a subversion of the master-servant dynamic on which the comforts of the middle class were constructed, and so, in addition to adventure, detection, and young love, The String of Pearls offers a dark revenge fantasy of class-based violence that the middle-class critics of the penny dreadful were perhaps justified in fearing. tl;dr: Eat the Rich!


Author(s):  
John Hayes

Beginning with a close analysis of the life and musical oeuvre of “Blind” Willie Johnson, this chapter explores the ethical vision of folk Christianity. It argues that folk Christians confronted the potential downward spiral they faced (a “culture of poverty”) with an ethic of non-retaliatory, self-giving “neighborliness.” This ethic was expressed in indirect ways, in song and proverb, and a crucial part of the ethic was to name tangible destructive forces as personified evil. Middle-class observers either did not see this ethic, or looked with condescension at what they regarded as primitive superstition. Regardless, the folk ethic not only transformed the lives of the poor, but also articulated its own critique of the dominant Mammonism of the New South.


2021 ◽  
pp. 97-101
Author(s):  
Samuel Cohn

This chapter looks at state shrinking and tax cutting, describing how political change in capitalism would come to be dominated by a conservative middle class rather than a leftist working class. Why was there going to be a middle-class tax rebellion? The short answer is that most of the taxes under capitalism are paid by two groups: small businesses and rich individuals. Fortune 500 corporations and large banks pay very few taxes; this group can be called monopoly capital because they are entitled, fully legally, to a wide variety of exemptions that they make full use of. Meanwhile, the poor pay very few taxes because they simply do not have the money. Ultimately, small businesses, wealthy individuals, and the middle class are paying a disproportionately large amount of the expenses of the government while receiving a disproportionately small amount of government benefits. This makes those taxpayers resentful of government bureaucrats, welfare programs, and government waste.


2021 ◽  
pp. 291-332
Author(s):  
Farhad Khosrokhavar

A jihadogenic urban structure is an urban setting that has been the stage for the departure of high numbers of jihadi agents to Syria in comparison with other districts. The dominant structure is a deprived poor district and in a minority of cases a specific poor or middle-class neighborhood. Chapter 6 explores the locations from which large numbers of jihadists have made the trip to Syria and the conditions that characterize these areas. In Europe, the geographic location of jihadism has been overwhelmingly urban, with two major exceptions. The first is the Islamist community of Artigat in France. The second is the Balkans and rural Bosnia. Regarding those urban dwellings where jihadism prospered, we can study local history, youth networks, and charismatic leaders who played a key role in the radicalization of the settlers. The intrinsic peculiarity of the urban setting seems not to exist in middle-class districts, in contrast to the poor ethnic districts where structural factors led to the radicalization of disaffected youth.


Worldview ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 38-41
Author(s):  
Kai Bird ◽  
Sue Goldmark

The American electorate has acquired an ingrained prejudice against foreign aid. The public suspects that foreign aid is something the government takes from the poor in a rich country and gives to the wealthy in a poor country. This suspicion— like many of America's populist wisdoms—is the tragic truth in one of the world's poorest nations, Bangladesh.Only a pittance of international food aid to Bangladesh feeds the starving or destitute. Even in this bumper crop year an estimated 368,000 babies and young children will die due to malnutrition or related diseases. Food aid generally does not reach the poor; 90 per cent of the 1.6 million tons of foreign food aid shipped to Bangladesh this year was used to subsidize a ration system for the middle class.


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