Analysis Of Judith Levine's 'Argumentative Essay'

Hailey Robinson
ENG1100 (025)
4/30/2014
Argumentative assignment

Trustworthy

In chapter two, page thirty-eight Rye asked himself if poverty alone made people less trustworthy (Barcott 38). During Rye’s first conversation with a Kenyan business man about trust in Kibera, Rye felt the man’s discrimination towards the people of the country Rye was about to explore, but he had not realized that trusting people in poverty did not always end well, he had never experienced it. While Rye spends time in Kibera he was shown compassion while staying in people’s houses, although most impoverished countries would not open up their homes for a stranger. As Rye continues to lives in Kibera he begins to trust the people, make relationships, and
build a business with them. In Rye’s case and many others, poverty did not make people less trustworthy, but in majority of cases the general upper class has multiple reasons not to believe the people living in poverty could be trusted. Society believes poverty makes people less trustworthy due to influence, instability, relationships and fear.
Government influences have separated the impoverished people within a country from the upper class, creating trust issues between the two. The large government influence has caused insecurity in one another; both classes are not treated equally which turns them against each other. Almost sixty percent of people surveyed responded that more than half of the rich pay too little in taxes, while less than thirty percent say they pay their fair share (Parker 2012). On the other hand, poverty gets benefits such as food stamps and welfare which helps them live easier and pay less in taxes. Most of the people on welfare are African-Americans (Jaworski 2013) and the race minorities are more understanding than whites on beliefs about poverty and individualistic treatment. Majority of white people on welfare believe that everyone should receive the same treatment instead of dealing with each situation individually. Social-class identity and self-conservatism both significantly impact beliefs about wealth and poverty (Hunt n.pag). Another gap the government has established is emotional differences. Adults that identify themselves as upper class live a happier, more satisfied life because they feel less stress from financial problems and family issues (Parker 2012). Those who identify themselves as lower class get a sense feeling worthless and lose their motivation to work harder. As for politics, “the Republican Party is the party of the rich” (Douthat 2013). Republicans are pushed towards the big businesses, and they made an even sharper push towards a more southern base, playing it off that the “normal” thing to be was wealthy and liberal in 2008. The lower class and impoverished areas lean towards the Democratic Party. Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans to have received food stamps at some point in their lives (Morin 2013). Obama has had a large impact on the Democratic Party also, due to Obamacare. The influences the government has forced on the financial classes formed trust issues.
Instability causes irrational behavior which leads to distrust. According to the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, people living in poverty experience more internalized stigma and depression partially mediated by self-esteem and fear of rejection (Williams n.pag.). Poverty is one of the most consistent predictors of depression in women; poverty, racism, and discrimination were thought to result in mental distress. As women go through all this stress the number one way to handle it seems to be self-harm (Bashir n.pag.). As self-harm becomes more prevalent in areas of poverty it causes issues with society wanting to help, some people believe that “if you do not help yourself, why should anyone else help you?” Poverty is largely pushed towards mental and financial instability results in irrational acts such as depression, causing problems with society. Overall putting trust in people who are not stable is a difficult concept for the society to grasp. How does one know who to trust? How long should one know someone before one trusts them? It is not inhumane to not trust everyone easily; it takes time for a friendship to grow to the point of trust and reliability. Helping someone out and caring about them can form trust, volunteering in a community sets a great example. Actually, majority of males from single-parent, low income families are less likely than those growing up in married couple households to be involved in volunteer work (Lichter n.pag.). Volunteering is a great way to give back to the community and in 2008, 60.8 million people age 16 or older, performed unpaid work for a nonprofit organization (Blum 2008). In 2013, 62.6 million people volunteered through or for an organization at least once (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2013). Statistics show that volunteer work is rising and if males coming from homes in poverty have a low volunteer rate then it justifies why society lacks trust in low income areas. If society is willing to work for families in poverty and help them survive with food stamps, welfare, etc., then it should not be too much to ask that they volunteer and give back as well. Societies work together to survive, or as dictionary online refers to it as “a highly structured system of human organization for large-scale community living that normally furnishes protection, continuity, security, and a national identity for its members” (Turner 2014). By using poverty and self-harm men and women are getting out of helping their community. Poverty has created instability throughout families and causes trust issues with society.
Poverty builds a huge barrier between the upper class public and the lower income, poverty public, causing issues with relationships. As stated in the second paragraph the government created these relationships by molding each class to act the way they expect them to. By persuading these two groups to be spiteful and distrusting towards each other, relationships were set in stone. There is a huge stigma with some families getting services that others do not, may that be unemployment, food stamps or aid to families with dependent children. Only thirty percent of recipients of food stamps actually work, (Delaney 2013) some people living in “poverty” are making a living off of what they can receive for free, such as selling their food stamps. This infuriates the upper class because some of the people who are living in “poverty” are scamming the government and living for free while the upper class is working to support this behavior. These acts are ungrateful and make the wealthier families feel as if the lower classes are not trustworthy because they are taking advantage of the help they are offered. Welfare populations have unreasonably high rates of depression and co-occurring substance abuse problems (Zabkiewicz 2009). Expecting society to sympathize single people or parents that are going out of their way to ruin what the government is supplying them with for free is not sensible. Upper class families in society work hard to get where they are and if they are willing to understand the government reaching out to those in need, then the families receiving things for free should be doing everything they can to get back on their feet.
Throughout poverty fear causes society to trust less, in a recent NBC news article, senior producer Barbra Baar had Judith Levine report on a study “Distrust is really yet another form of inequality” (Levine 2014).
In this article Levine interviewed ninety-five women on their opinions and lifestyles while living in poverty and raising children. Levine says she was shocked, “by how many women talked about their suspicions of others’ unreliability in almost every area of their lives” (Levine 2014). The upper class families have more reasons to trust others which give them better connections and opportunities in the long run. If people who are living in poverty do not trust their own class then society cannot expect upper class families to trust them either. It is a cycle and as harsh as society is on judging families in poverty it still shows that they do not trust them. Overall the general public is not comfortable with one another, being in a lower class just makes you a larger target for distrust. Also in the article, Levine writes about how the women were treated poorly by their welfare caseworkers and how they did not follow through on certain things. When welfare workers do not complete what they promise they will cause the women to retaliate which brings distrust in the welfare systems, all these issues spiral in to becoming problems with distrust between the classes. For example childcare, any woman is going to be protective over her children; upper class women have more money to find better childcare, while mothers living in poverty have childcare services that may be unreliable. This is unfair to the women in poverty because they do not have the freedom to do that, while their welfare caseworkers are not doing what they need to do, causing the mothers in poverty to waste their money paying for poor childcare when they do not need to. Every little bit counts for these lower income families and it is not as difficult for the higher income mothers to pay for
it, creating another problem and eliminating any type of friendship these two different financial classes could have formed. The women in poverty do not trust other people in their situation because they understand how difficult things are and if people in their own class do not trust one another then expecting upper class to completely trust the ones in poverty would not make sense. Families living in poverty have little to nothing to lose, which could be their motivation to do whatever it takes to survive. Poverty alone can be a reason to not fully trust someone, society fears not knowing how far they will go to get to the top. In conclusion, society believes poverty makes people less trustworthy due to influence, instability, relationships and fear. Individual relationships with people from other financial classes do not have to be affected by these reasons; but as a society, statistics and life differences prove large gaps between the two classes. The constant battle between equality, ideas, and lifestyle established the barrier within a community. Trusting everyone is frightening and it is human nature to be worried about your own well-being. Disagreeing with Rye, poverty alone can make people less trustworthy because as William Shakespeare said “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”