Conflict Theory Of Homelessness

As businesses develop and technology advances, the need for the proletariat in the workforce reduces, for example, in the past ten years, automated shopping centre checkouts have flooded large retail outlets. This initial large cost of setup sees a worthwhile overall return as it means fewer employees that they need working in their store at the checkouts. This being motivated by a businesses biggest priority being to make money, not to keep employees working for them. This is not only isolated to retail; factories, farming and car parks have all progressed to automated systems. Because of this automation the proletariat are subsequently let go from their jobs by the bourgeoise. These proletariats that are already low on the societal pyramid
due to exploitation are now more vulnerable to becoming homeless. This likelihood of becoming homeless due to unemployment is due to a nexus between homelessness and unemployment (Steen, Mackenzie & McCormack, 2018). Further to this, a study in the US study by Sheehan and Rio found that homeless people do want to work, they stated in their study “Contrary to stereotypes, homeless people do want to work, and they often want to engage in work quickly” (2007. p343). Consequently, homeless shouldn’t be seen as lazy and lacking motivation, it should be seen as a lack of jobs in society and a competition for those jobs.
To conclude, this essay began by outlining various things such as, what is a social problem, and what constitutes a social problem, it then explained the issue of homelessness, from there the sociological perspective conflict theory was explained.
Finally, this essay utilised conflict theory to explain homelessness. This essay broke down and applied conflict theory to several aspects of what causes homelessness such as drug use as a result of alienation caused by exploitation in the competitive capitalist system. Unemployment was analysed as a contributing factor to homelessness, unemployment was blamed on the competitive nature of society. Advances in technology have resulted in the proletariat being replaced by automated systems, because of this advancement, unemployment and alienation is present amongst the proletariat. large businesses in the capitalist system want to get on top, and only have monetary motivations, this results in minimal wages paid to the lower working-class proletariat. The essay then looked at cost of living and housing affordability, it was put forth that housing affordability and cost of renting was rising due to the people with the wealth, that own all the property, are exploiting the renters by driving up rent for their own gain, they are hoarding all the property to maintain their wealth and societal pyramid position. The
proletariat