Ghetto poverty is still the problem of 7 million of people, among the 30 million poor in the United States. It is a pressing issue, above all when we take into account media coverage that is given to these areas of social and spatial segregation. A mistake would be to consider only Black ghetto neighborhoods, when it also concerns the Latinos. The rise of the Latino minority, which is forecasted to triple from 2000 to 2050, could also potentially increase the number of individuals living in ghetto poverty areas. The current crisis and the consequences of the unprecedented recession may also worsen this picture and necessitate strong emergency welfare measures for the ghetto inhabitants. There is already a risk that the public powers may be compelled to stress on helping the ghetto inhabitants to survive, more than helping them to get out of the ghetto, on a long term basis. I will however try to analyze what can be learned from past economic measures to cope with ghetto poverty. First, I will take an inventory of the main difficulties and drawbacks of politics that were launched during the War on poverty, to understand to which extent it can help us today. It is actually very important to have a look at the past decades to build more efficient policies for the future and avoid repeating the same mistakes.
[...] However, I definitely think that targeted policies are necessary to cope with the problem of ghetto poverty, even if it is politically highly dangerous. David Wilson's definition of the “glocal ghetto” (WILSON (David), Cities and Race, America's New Black Ghetto, Questioning Cities Series, Routledge, New York, 2007), as a concentrated problem of hyper marginalized populations, finishes convincing me that there is a clear need of ghetto targeted policies. After the 1960s, and the Civil Rights movement, there was a kind of disappointment among the poorest of the population, when they saw that after the beginning of the War on Poverty and then the Civil Rights movement, their situation did not improve so much, above all concerning ghetto neighborhoods, that did not stop growing. [...]
[...] This author thinks that the ghetto looks like a conglomeration of poor people, without solidarity and a strong cohesive structure among them. As a consequence, they are unable to seize the political tools necessary to exercise a lobbying power. This cohesion can be built by helping to restore a fabric of ghetto inhabitants owned businesses inside the ghetto neighborhoods. I truly believe that small businesses can participate in reconstructing social link among a community, as long as it is owned or employs people coming from these minorities, and not White people living in the suburbs, who do not spend the produced wealth in the ghetto area. [...]
[...] After having explored a short history of the anti ghetto poverty policies and having also depicted what would be my ideal economic policy for the ghetto, it is nevertheless time to have a look at what current politicians envisage to fight against ghetto poverty. The 2008 presidential election was the occasion to have various new potential agendas for a 21st century war on poverty. Senator Edwards' book (Senator EDWARDS (John), CRAIN (Marion), KALLEBERG (Arne Ending Poverty in America, How to restore the American Dream, The New Press, London, New York, 2007) was nevertheless more focusing on the origins of this poverty than on solutions. [...]
[...] They are already the first hit by the consequences of the crisis and they will need financial help and additional welfare policies to overcome their difficulties. If the authorities failed in providing help, the minorities and the ghetto inhabitants would once again feel neglected and victim of racism. This would clearly be catastrophic for social peace in the US in the coming years, taking into account that Whites will certainly be a minority around 2060. Bibliography DAVIS (Frank What to Do about Urban Poverty: The Black Ghetto Case, in. [...]
[...] To sum up, the current political supply of economic policies for the ghetto clearly disappoints me. To my mind, the green collar economy is unfortunately not a solution for environment, and it is not the case for poverty either. However, anti poverty measures will necessarily follow the financial crisis and I hope more ambitious and feasible measures will emerge at this moment. As a conclusion, I would say that ghetto poverty is definitely not going to disappear in the coming decade and on the contrary, it may spread, if we take into account the continuous flow of poor Mexican and Asian immigrants, and the current economic situation. [...]
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