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Naming
the System: Inequality by Michael D. Yates All material copyright ©2003 by Monthly Review Press |
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| « MRP Home
May 2003 |
Excerpt from:
Mainstream, neoclassical, economists like to talk about equality of opportunity. They say that, even if there is inequality in wealth and income, people can still have the same economic opportunities, especially if the society provides some essential public services. The data presented in this chapter must surely call this notion into question. How can a poor person in any country have the same opportunity as a rich one? How can a poor country become a rich country? Consider a thought experiment. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I lived for many years, there is an extraordinarily wealthy family, the Hillman’s, with a net worth of several billion dollars. One of their homes, along once fashionable Fifth Avenue, is a gorgeous mansion on a magnificent piece of property. About three miles east of this residence is the Homewood section of the city, whose mean streets have been made famous by the writer, John Edgar Wideman. On North Lang Street there is a row of three connected apartments. One of the end apartments has been abandoned to the elements— to the rodents and the drug users. This is gang territory, and if you are African American, you do not go there wearing the wrong colors. Poverty, deep and grinding, is rampant on this street and in this neighborhood, which has one of the nation’s highest infant mortality rates. Consider two children, one born in the Hillman house and another born in the North Lang Street apartment. In the former, there are two rich and influential parents, and in the latter there is a single mother working nights with three small children. Let us ask some basic questions. Which mother will have the best health care, with regular visits to the doctor, medicine if needed, and a healthy diet? Which child is more likely to have a normal birth weight? Which child is more likely to get adequate nutrition and have good health care in early childhood? If the poor child does not have these things, who will return to this child the brain cells lost as a consequence? Which child is more likely to suffer the ill effects of lead poisoning? Which child is more likely to have an older sibling, just 12 years old, be responsible for him when the mother is working at night? Which will be fed cookies for supper and be entertained by an old television set? If the two children get ill in the middle of the night, which one will be more likely to make it to the emergency room in time? Which child will start school speaking standard English, wearing new clothes, and having someone at home to make sure the homework gets done? Which child will travel, and which will barely make it out of the neighborhood? As the two children grow up, what sort of people will they meet? Which will be more likely to meet persons who will be useful to them when they are seeking admission to college or looking for a job or trying to find funding for a business venture? Which will be more likely to be hit by a stray bullet fired in a war over drug turf? Which will go to the better school? Which will have access to books, magazines, newspapers, and computers in the home? Which one will wear worn-out clothes? Which one will be embarrassed because his clothes smell? Which one will be more likely to have caring teachers who work in well-equipped and safe schools? Which one will be afraid to tell the teacher that he does not have crayons and colored paper at home? Which child will learn the grammar and syntax of the rich? Which child will join a gang? Abuse drugs? Commit a crime? Be harassed by the police because he is black? When these two children face the labor market, which one will be more productive? To ask these questions is to answer them. And when we consider that this poor child in the United States is better off than two-thirds of the world’s population, we must conclude that most of the world’s people live in a state of deprivation so extreme that they must be considered to have almost no opportunities at all. They are almost as condemned as the person on death row in a Texas prison. I say almost because, as we shall see later in this book, people have never just been passive victims of their poverty. They are remarkably resilient and resourceful and constantly do things to amaze us. Some youngsters from the poor Pittsburgh neighborhood make it to college; some become writers like John Wideman. Sometimes, poor people rise up and rebel en masse against their circumstances. And sometimes, they win. |
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