Is social behavior linked to being poor?

A casual observance I have made is that no matter where you go, the poor act like the poor. Higher instance of public drunkenness, fighting, etc. Is this a recognized and documented phenomena?





My interest in knowing this answer relates to racism. It is sometimes argued that the reason why one racial group or another is also the poorest is because they are drunk all the time, they fight, etc., thus justifying the negative view they may have towards that group.





However, if what I have observed is true then this false logic by these people which is actually very tragic. It's not their race but their social status that attributes to this behavior, and then the perception of that behavior as being tied to race to keep that race in the social status that causes it.





If it is recognized that this social behavior is tied to social status, then I have something to argue against the next person who tries to use that racist argument.





Thank you in advance.

Is social behavior linked to being poor?
There is a lot of research and documentation about the "culture" of poverty. I wouldn't say that the culture causes people to be poor, but is possibly a product of generational poverty. Within families who have experienced generational poverty, overcoming poverty doesn't seem like a realistic ambition. Priorities are often to "save face," demonstrate loyalty to family, and enjoy what you've got when you've got it, because you never know what you'll have (or not have) tomorrow. Keeping that in mind, it is more understandable why someone whose priority is to save face would engage in fighting, and why someone who wants to live for the moment might justify public drunkenness.
Reply:The actions that you described are actions that people from all socioeconomic statuses partake in. But, one big difference is how people and society react to the actions based on the assumption of wealth. The majority culture , be it racial or economic, believe that when they partake in this behavior it is "socially acceptable" but when the minority culture does the same things then it is not acceptable. Through my experience, living in the low social status and the higher status, those behaviors happen everywhere but people notice it more if it is a poor person doing it. Another difference is that when a "rich" person gets in trouble they can get out of it easier, but when a poor person gets in trouble they have to rely on a public defender, which is sometimes useless. There are many differences between the social classes and it is important to realize the things that contribute to being "poor", people are not poor because they like it and don't ever want to have money but rather because it is very difficult for most people to get ahead once they are behind. I came from a "rich" family that lost everything in a matter of two years. Then we were on welfare, it is hard to see the good things in life when you are that down, and now I am getting my master's degree. But people can beat the odds if they have the tools necessary.
Reply:social behavior is linked to expectations and experiences in society, whether that is poverty, riches, age, race, ability, national origin, etc.





I don't feel that any one factor is soley inspiring of behavior, but a conglomerate of multiple factors. So, I do not feel that a race or poverty factor alone is sufficient.





A logical falacy one could fall into is if they said that "all of [insert a specific behavior] is caused by poverty." or if they said that, "all people who make under a certain amount of money (whatever the current definition is under "impoverished") will behave this way because of their poverty."





A logical falacy is an error in logic that occurs between foundation and conclusion which makes the statement incorrect, unprovable, unreliable, or unquantifiable (which could thus make it unprovable).





Also, this would run the risk of taking subjects, (those that are able to know and act for themselves), and interacting with them as if they were objects (those that are (pre)known and acted upon).





The absolute best resources I could suggest to you would be a single book called "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire (resource link below). This isn't a book to inhale, it is a book to digest as it explores emotional, logical and social process of the system of oppression. In many cases, this book explores the subject of people living in poverty, their lives, their interaction with poverty as well as class in general, and the world around them.





I normally devour books in a day or two but this book has taken me over a year. Yes, there is some complex vocabulary, especially in the very beginning of the book, I just kept a list of these words and looked them up and marked where I later found their definitions in the book, this helped a lot. It also helped that I was willing to accept that I didn't personally understand some of the concepts, because of that I just kept reading and while I missed many things, I gained so much insight from what I was able to understand.





I say all of that because i think that anyone who has the opportunity should read this book and I would hope that they wouldn't get hung up on some of the academic language in it. (oh, and the intro and other parts not written by Paulo, I skipped these.
Reply:I don't think in todays' world race has anything to do with it. i would say that educatioin is a greater factor. In years gone by we could have argued that it probably was but now as life has progressed the demand for skilled workers have escalated leaving behind the majority who are unskilled or are unwilling to become so. As times progresses skilled workers become more important so those who are not end up without jobs.





s to your statement concerning behavior i can but agree for 85%.
Reply:it's a vicious circle. you can't get a job, you get drunk to forget about it, which makes it even harder to get a job.





race itself got nothing to do with it, but it is hard to separate it from the culture of a given ethnic group. You can kinda argue that most successful blacks in US did not grow up within African-American culture.
Reply:I don't think so. There are countless people in this world who are extremely rich, conservative, outsmart and etc and have good social behavior at the same time.
Reply:Seems to me that you are personally acquainted with very few members of the poor classes. If you live in a very tiny world, having few social contacts to base your views upon, it's still no excuse. You have nothing valid to say and you know it.


Get out more. If you are scared to go anywhere outside that bubble you live in, get over it.


Even the president isn't as naive as you, and that's saying a lot.
Reply:simply ... yes
Reply:Well, there are 2.5 times as many poor white people as poor black people in this country. You can decide for yourself how that applies to your theories.





I'm not sure that I would agree with you about the poor "acting" poor. There is a significant subset of poor people who probably could pursue higher paying jobs, but choose not to. For example, my Mennonite family members (Amish) are all pretty broke, but that's a choice of lifestyle. Similarly, my cousin teaches at a small, underfunded private school. She is clearly hovering around the poverty line, too, but you'd never see her getting drunk in public.





I think that there are people of poor character in all social classes; it's just that they might be commiting different crimes as they move up the economic scale.





For example, look at a rich man who divorces his wife to go and live with a 19 year old. Let's say he "gives" the first wife 5% of his income in alimony. Compare that to a poor man in a similar situation who "gives" his ex wife 10% of his income in alimony. Which one does our society look down on more? Is one of these guys really more moral than the other?





I would also add that rich people have access to better lawyers - just think of GW Bush and his DUIs and possible cocaine use. If he was poor, he'd be in jail by now.
Reply:As a sociologist I can tell you that three most measured variables are race, income, and sex. However, race and sex have statistical interaction in regards to income. That being said, realize that in the US there are more poor white people who do drugs and take welfare than any other race because there are more white people than any other race. However, minorities in ratio of their population totals have more issues with crime and poverty and drugs. Race is a predictor for a lot of things in the US from behaviors to educational attainment to status etc. However, we really need to avoid sterotyping because you just can't play the race card as an analytical tool across the board. As far as social status and race, we see that there are many variances in this issue within the entire population, but we still see higher percentages of minorities with lower status/incomes, and moreso with women of any race, and particularly minority women. The census website does a great job providing this type of data, and you can even download it and run it in high level statistics programs with the code book.
Reply:of course it DURRRRRRR, personality is effected from family, culture, and genes dont get to chose those!

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