The economic policies of the ghetto

Résumé du document

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.

Extraits

[...] At the same time, targeted policies put the emphasis on the minorities, which could demean them. I cannot have a clear position on this debate; it clearly depends on the people in power at that moment and on the current budgetary situation. In the end, the War on Poverty was an unprecedented financial effort to cope with poverty. Its goal was to help the poorest of the US citizens to seize more opportunities on the labor market. It worked in a way, since the expenditure was quintupled and the number of people below the poverty line was divided by two, according to Jencks and Peterson (The Urban Underclass, The Brookings Institution, Washington D.C., 1991). [...]

[...] JENCKS (Christopher), PETERSON (Paul The Urban Underclass, The Brookings Institution, Washington D.C JONES The Green Collar Economy, HarperOne, New York KOLBERT (Elizabeth), Greening the Ghetto: can a remedy serve for both global warming and poverty?, in The New Yorker, New York, January 12th 2009. SNIDERMAN (Paul), CARMINES (Edward), Reaching Beyond Race, Harvard University Press, Cambridge pp. 99-139. STRAAYER (John Adrian), The American Policy Process and the Problems of Poverty and the Ghetto, in. The Western Political Quarterly, Vol No pp. 45-51. WILSON (William), The Truly Disadvantaged, The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago WILSON (David), Cities and Race, America's New Black Ghetto, Questioning Cities Series, Routledge, New York, 2007. [...]

[...] 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. Journal of Economic Issues, Vol No pp. [...]

[...] I am nevertheless really optimistic about the possible social outcomes of such measures of ghetto owned businesses. 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. [...]

[...] This point of view is shared by Heilbrun and Wellisz in their article (An Economic Program for the Ghetto, in. Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol No Urban Riots: Violence and Social Change pp. 72-85.). Developing Black or Latino owned businesses is clearly no panacea, but it can also not worsen the situation. An advantage would be to give the keys to the ghetto inhabitants to “help themselves out of the ghetto” (HEILBRUN, WELLISZ, 1968). Once again, it would be possible to encourage all kind of businesses to establish themselves in these areas, so that it would be a universal policy, in this case, affirmative action would compel the owners to hire workers from the neighborhood. [...]