Homelessness. Of course poverty is just a general effect from the corporate capitalist economy; however homelessness is one significant factor from poverty which highlights C. Wright Mills theory about private issues becoming public issues. Howev
PTPI: Homelessness
For years and years poverty has been a worldwide problem that has consistently caused various issues and problems within society. However it is perhaps the cause of poverty which is problematic. Of course poverty is just a general effect from the corporate capitalist economy; however homelessness is one significant factor from poverty which highlights C. Wright Mills’ theory about private issues becoming public issues. However defining homelessness can be difficult as well as measuring it. Regardless of the difficulties in determining what exactly homelessness is, there is no doubt that gender, race and ethnicity and disability are all groups in society who are most affected by the structure of society.
When analysing today’s society it is no wonder that homelessness has been on the uprising as people today ‘want’ rather than just ‘need’ things, a selfish and corporate minded society will only make the ‘rich richer and the poor poorer’. As millions are losing their jobs due to ‘cut-backs’ it is no wonder that society has blamed the economy. For example the Royal Bank of Scotland “made a £1.67bn loss in 2010, after losses of £3.6bn in 2009 and £35bn in 2008.” 1 yet still managed to pay out“£375m to 323 people designated as "code" or key staff.” 1, just a small example of what is really going on and as to why the majority of the population are suffering from the economy in many ways. Regardless of the fact that poverty is inevitable with a state ran as such it is the effects which it has had on the population which is significant. Perhaps people do not realise the extent of homelessness because of what a stereotypical homeless man looks like; bad hair, long beard, dirty, grubby and looking in bins – not a man in a suite who has been made ‘redundant’ who cannot feed his family or afford to pay rent so that they have to move in with their own family. As mentioned previously defining homelessness is an issue itself, how can people understand homelessness if it is not as obvious as it sounds? According to the Housing Act 1996 homelessness is when “There is no accommodation that they are entitled to occupy; or they have accommodation but it is not reasonable for them to continue to occupy this accommodation” 2 , not exactly what most people would think. Regardless of public opinion on homelessness it is up to the government to exterminate any inequalities and help the social groups who suffer the most from society’s problems; gender, race and ethnicity and the disabled.
Ever since ethnic minorities came to Britain there has been a constant uprising in the number of ethnics every year; The Office for National Statistics stated that “9.1 million people living in England and Wales - equivalent to one in six of the population - were now from a "non-white" background. The new total, based on statistics compiled in 2009, is 2.5 million higher than the comparable figure of 6.6 million in 2001” 3 however this has caused structural racism in the sense that things such as religion, culture and race can generally affect their jobs and then their lives. Without sustaining a well-paying job it is almost impossible to survive as the cost of living has increased but the minimum wage and benefits given out have stayed the same or increased only to an extent. One very important factor in life is being able to provide for your family, it always has been and always will be, but when you are earning less than other groups in society it automatically creates various inequalities such as money to spend on housing, heating, school and good food. “Pay for Pakistani men on average 22.9% lower and pay of Pakistani women on average 25.7% lower than White British men. The average pay of Bangladeshi men and Black African women is almost 21% lower than the average pay of White British men, while the gap for Black African men and Bangladeshi women is almost 18%” 4 In this case it is undeniable that ethnics are facing discrimination to some extent – although part of the reason is due to the fact that ethnics are more likely to take up part-time or low paying jobs. As well as the fact that ethnic families tend to have bigger families which means that low paying jobs cannot give ethnic children similar opportunities or an easy upbringing, another cause of children going into poverty and homelessness. Another example of society causing inequalities is that the geography in which ethnics live is compact and overcrowded. Generally speaking ethnics tend to stick within their religions and cultures to determine where they live but it does not mean they should be neglected even though it appears that people seem to be content about it in the sense that it is their own choice to crowd into one house – not always the case. The point is that it can cause overcrowding which has serious effects on the lives of the people in the house- especially the children. As a result of matters as such it can have serious effects on a child’s upbringing as it might mean that the child has to stay at home to help the family or work in their business which would mean they have no education or very limited education if any. Consequently this leaves many children with an unfair disadvantage which creates a spread or divide of educated children – mostly white- who can use their qualifications to get well paid and long term jobs, not minimum wage part-time work. Evidently it is a public issue when thousands of children’s potential is being held back just because of choices that were made for them. Although it would seem these issues are private to each family it becomes clear that there are not problems within the families but within the greater family, society, which allows us to understand that it is society and the government who allow these troubles to occur.
