The War Against The Poor

For most of its history, America has been fighting a vicious war that cannot be won: a war against its own poor. In this incisive new book, Herbert J. Gans probes the socioeconomic, psychological, and political reasons why better-off Americans seek to indict millions of poor citizens as members of an "undeserving underclass." Although he analyzes the legitimate fears and hostility that generate this stigma, he mounts a compelling argument that the "underclass" actually functions as a scapegoat for ills in American society that have nothing to do with the behavior of the poor. Many of these ills are economic, and as more jobs are "downsized," a number of the newly jobless people will be driven into the ranks of the "underclass." The book ends with a set of imaginative economic policy ideas for an America that may never again be able to supply enough decent jobs for everyone.