The reading was about upside of the undeserving poor in society. It’s said that everything has a function positively and negatively. The reading reminds me of the first time I read the Sociology book. Specifically, it made me think of sociological thinking. The book emphasizes how sociologists look at the society. It’s like looking at a glass of water. Some might think there’s only a half glass of water, whereas others think there’s even a half glass of water. However, sociologists should consider how much water is left, how much water remains, and how much air there was. Their thinking should not be ‘either/or’, but ‘both/and’. In fact, ‘Functional Structuralism’ helps to understand this reading better. When we talked about ‘Functional Structuralism’ in class, we discuss positive function of homeless person sitting in the subway train in society. The person will make us motivated. We might think ‘I WILL NEVER BE LIKE THAT. I SHOULD WORK HARD.’ I believe that it is a positive function in society for sure. I would move on the real reading. Among thirteen positive functions that writer suggested, some of them were a little tricky to understand and others were very impressive. First of all, people who are out of formal labor market are more likely to supply illegal goods. The fascinating thing was people who are supplied by them are usually rich. And another impressive one was they create jobs in markets. Lately, unemployment issue is getting more serious. Then, undeserving poor create jobs. They are more likely to suffer mentally and physically, so a lot of job such as doctor, teacher, healer, consultant, counselor and psychologist will be needed. The way of they live as an undeserving poor actually helps people who are not banished from labor market in many ways. However, we don’t appreciate enough. We don’t feel bad for them enough either. Everything started from the one point. The only way we can help undeserving poor suffer less is helping our country overcome this serious poverty.
In relating to the reading passage and our lecture, the society enterprises stratification. Stratification is the system of structured social inequality and the structure of mobility in a society. People would rank people in the society. Therefore, people in certain group or rank would be under protection as people do not really wish to have exchange within classes. People tends to stay in their own group to be safe, especially people who are from upper class.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with you. People who are from upper class will want to stay where they are and will do everything necessary to make sure others can't move up where they belong. On the other hand, people from relatively lower class will do everything to move up their social status. In fact, everyone is not free from labeling, so it is very natural.
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