It is safe to say that all cities want to secure their financial freedom and flexibility. It is not only the goal of most United States cities, but also of United States citizens. Economic growth and prosperity signify health and abundance for a city, therefore bringing status and power. “An advantageous economic position,” as Peterson puts it, “means a competitive edge . . . relative to other localities” (Peterson, 22). It is believed that with a healthy economy, and more importantly, a growing economy, comes the need for jobs and production. Further, when cities pursue economic development and stake their claim in the market they can “produce a good that can be sold in an external market, labor and capital [will] flow into the city to help …show more content…
While Peterson makes a convincing argument, he claims the interconnectedness between economic and social development is not always beneficial to all parties involved, usually at the cost of the low-skilled, low-income individuals. A city government that promotes economic policy and development is not necessarily doing so to enhance social welfare in its municipality. As Peterson stated himself, “One does not consider whether it has a positive or negative effect on the total range of social interactions of each and every individual” (Peterson, 21). In fact, economic policies and development often work at the disadvantage to the social well-being of a city’s residents. For example, Peterson explains that when a city focuses on economic development, “the city seeks to obtain an appropriately skilled labor force at wages lower than its competitors so that it can profitably export commodities” (Peterson, 26). In this case the city is not concerned with livable wages, benefits, or the well-being of its workers. While Peterson proposes that a benefit to economic growth within a city is that residents obtain jobs, earn and income, and pay that back into the city’s budding economy, in reality if the business that the city is promoting is simply concerned with keeping wages as low as possible, then hardworking citizens become pawns in the business’s profit-making agenda. Citizens are taken advantage of by being given low wages and by being expected to spend that money for the benefit of the city’s economy. Cities and businesses have the end-goal of profit and economic well-being for the business in mind, but this often means completely disregarding the economic and social well-being of the individuals working for the business. In this case, promoting business has a negative impact on the individual’s
In the twentieth century, governmental agencies and private developers acting together cleared out the central city to make room for the federal government. The government was able to do this through its unique economic and legislative relationship to the city, and through a heightened symbolic architectural and verbal language which supported its valorization. The symbolic language and the government's dominance in the local economy are mutually supportive. Symbolism removes ownership of the city from local residents and makes it national. It also masks the federal government's failure to prove economically beneficial to all sections of the city and to all its races and classes, as a 'trickle down' theory of dominant economies argues. Because of the government's importance in the local economy, its symbolic self-representation goes unchallenged.
...elp the working middle class from falling into poverty or to help the working poor rise out of poverty. Furthermore the working poor themselves lack the knowledge and power to demand reform. David Shipler says it best when he writes, “Relief will come, if at all, in an amalgam that recognizes both the society’s obligation through government and business, and the individual’s obligation through labor and family —and the commitment of both society and individual.” (Shipler 5786-5788) It is time for America to open its eyes and see the invisible working poor.
“The Deeper Problems We Miss When We Attack ‘Gentrification’”exhibit their opinion on the positives of gentrification and the potential of “revitalization” in low-income urban communities. Badger argues that gentrification brings nothing more than further opportunities for urban communities while integrating citizens of different social classes.Furthermore , she continues to question if gentrification is in fact the monster that brings the prior expressions against gentrification where she says “If poor neighborhoods have historically suffered from dire disinvestment, how can the remedy to that evil — outside money finally flowing in — be the problem, too?”(Badger) Stating that the funds generated from sources external that are brought into these communities can’t be problematic. This concept is further elaborated in the article “Does Gentrification Harm the Poor” where Vigdoor list the potential positive enhancements gentrification can have on an urban area in America ,stating that gentrification can
Now, a normal sized town contains fast-food joints, supermarkets, malls, and superstores, but a small town lacks that appeal. The small-town could be the most beautiful landscape known to man, but lack the necessary luxuries in life that a typical American would benefit from. Carr and Kefalas make this statement that emphasizes the town’s lack of appeal, “Indeed the most conspicuous aspects of the towns landscape may be the very things that are missing; malls, subdivisions, traffic and young people” (26). The authors clearly state that they realize that towns, such as the Heartland, are hurting because of the towns’ lack of modernization. For all intents and purposes, the town’s lack of being visually pleasing is driving away probable citizens, not only the native youth, and possible future employee’s away from a possible internship with the town. The citizens with a practice or business hurt from the towns inability to grow up and change along with the rest of the world, yet the town doesn’t realize what bringing in other businesses could potentially do for their small town. Creating more businesses such as malls, superstores and supermarkets would not only drive business up the roof, but it’ll also bring in revenue and draw the
Ehrenreich states “…the United States, for all its wealth, leaves its citizens to fend for themselves — facing market-based rents, for example, on their wages alone. For millions of Americans, that $10 — or even $8 or $6 — hourly wage is all there is.” (Ehrenreich 214) A large portion of us human beings in society today, only care about making money to benefit ourselves rather than those less fortunate. People who have worked their entire lives on low wages may never experience luxuriousness due to the greed of our employers and government. Those graced with a generous amount of money tend to leave others in need of assistance, thusly causing inhuman nature to develop within our communities. Ehrenreich experiences this when she found out that her own self-esteem lowered at the hands of her employers who treated their workers as disposable. These employers as well as their companies, devalue a worker to essentially keep them powerless against them. Many of the job interviews she had gone through avoided any discussion of wages because, the employers wanted to keep the paychecks at a bare minimum. In most situations within our community workplace, a worker is not compensated correctly for his or her labor. Most of the human beings today would do just anything to stay wealthy, even if it means devaluing another. Most of our society spends their lifetimes
... motivation for wealthy individuals to return to the inner-city core but it also provides impetus for commercial and retail mixed-use to follow, increasing local revenue for cities (Duany, 2001). Proponents of gentrification profess that this increase in municipal revenue from sales and property taxes allows for the funding of city improvements, in the form of job opportunities, improved schools and parks, retail markets and increased sense of security and safety ((Davidson (2009), Ellen & O’Reagan (2007), Formoso et. al (2010)). Due to the increase in housing and private rental prices and the general decrease of the affordable housing stock in gentrifying areas, financially-precarious communities such as the elderly, female-headed households, and blue-collar workers can no longer afford to live in newly developed spaces ((Schill & Nathan (1983), Atkinson, (2000)).
Poverty and low wages have been a problem ever since money became the only thing that people began to care about. In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, she presents the question, “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” This question is what started her experiment of living like a low wage worker in America. Ehrenreich ends up going to Key West, Portland, and Minneapolis to see how low wage work was dealt with in different states. With this experiment she developed her main argument which was that people working at low wages can’t live life in comfort because of how little they make monthly and that the economic system is to blame.
A BID is defined as, “[a]n organization of property owners in a commercial district who tax themselves to raise money for neighborhood improvements” (Cullingworth, 387). Assessments are then made mandatory and collected by the city. Thus, funding does not come by way of the federal government, but city’s can utilize grants to help fund their efforts. In this way, the federal governments support the community economic development, but takes no direct efforts in funding the programs. The city’s then offer incentives, in the form of tax exemptions, to attract developers. In turn, new construction would create jobs and lower unemployment. Theoretically, the encouragement of a tax incentives is to stimulate the economic growth of an area with higher unemployment rates. The problem is many developers tend to gravitate towards the city’s that can offer greater incentive. Officials have wondered if these programs benefit the cities with the greatest
Similar to a well oiled machine, a political system is concerned with processing the demands of a society to then provide the goods and services demanded while ensuring its own establishment (Berg 1). However, considering that the idea of a political system is a social construct, its form is subject to a myriad of complex and conflicting forces. The most palpable force is that of a city’s financial needs. Any locale has the burden of satisfying the demands of its constituents with limited resources. In addition to having limited resources, urban cities are also usually comprised of many diverse ethnic backgrounds with different demands and needs. Equitable distribution of limited resources to different ethnic and social backgrounds could have
In order to sustain a vibrant economy, the government needs to help the poor with their resources. The poor are poor not because they don’t work, but because government has failed to provide wages that American families can survive on. Cost can be an issue but the cost to subsidize the workers with low-wage jobs are higher (Kukathus 49). Acknowledging ethical and reli...
This article is about the city of Camden and how they went from being a thriving city to a city that is now in economic crisis. The city has a population of 70,390 and is the poorest city in the nation (16). Camden has an unemployment rate of 30-40% and has an average household income of 24,600 (16). In the past Camden was an industrial giant with several large companies like Campbell’s soup and RCA having factories there, which employed 36,000 people (17). Closing of the factories is one of the main reasons for Camden Counties' high unemployment rate. Over the past few years Camden has been forced to make “$28 million in draconian budget cuts, with officials talking about cutting 25 percent from every department, including layoffs of nearly half the police force” (16). With the lack of funds the counties education system is beginning to suffer with them having to cut the library rate by 2/3, now they have a“70 percent high school dropout rate, with only 13 percent of students managing to pass the state’s proficiency exams in math” (16).With all of the empty factories, empty houses, and vacant lots Camden is beginning to become a very unappealing and unhappy place to live.
This state is full of more cities besides just Los Angeles and San Francisco, for example, my city Richmond, California. I wasn’t born there, but I have lived there most of my life, and there is a certain appeal is there, but its not the stereotypical beauty you see in any infomercial. This city isn’t celebrated nor is it world recognized for its accomplishments, but it is a small city with hidden treasure. The hidden treasure are the success stories that the community does not expect, and that can create a sense of empowerment for everyone around us. That empowerment is something that should be seen nationally, especially since Richmond is not the only impoverished city in
Critically one of the larger factors of this topic where the problems begin is in poverty. Citizens of the United States often argue that lack of social reform has significant effects throughout all communities and their poverty levels in America. This may be true to a certain degree, but a largely missed fact is that exponential growth has occurred vastly in the past hundred years shown through histories’ short industrialization of the US; population size strongly correlates to the increase cost of living and the poverty threshold. Social form favors the increase of manufacturing which has dominated not only our capitalist market but many foreign markets as well; while compared to service occupations which have made little advancement compared to production output and technology. Those key components affect largely the amount of jobs available and knowledge required to compete in a competitive job market, yet allow employers to operate at minimal expense level. This disparity of finite jobs creates the separation of classes respectively relating people’s ability t...
As noted in the previous paragraph, when considering industrialization, State Intervention in the economy can create positive results when there is a State capable of doing so, like in the case of a Cohesive Capitalist State. However, in terms of social justice and the impact on the population’s quality of life, State Intervention cannot be the most apparent answer to the question of ‘how does a State increase its industrialization’. In a Neopatrimonial State, essentially all State Intervention is unable to contribute to long-term and sustainable economic development. The poorly structured bureaucracy, corrupt and personalistic leaders, and absence of a cohesive national goal, all ensure that the general population does not experience any positive benefits invested in the economy. In the case of a Cohesive Capitalist State, because the government needs to ensure that the entire population stands squarely behind its national goal, it will frequently employ repressive tactics. To do this, Cohesive Capitalist States systematically discipline and restrict the labor force through brutal and repressive measures, inevitably creating an obedient labor force that is willing to work in poor conditions for little to no pay. When taking into account the quality of life that citizens are forced to endure in a Cohesive Capitalist State, it becomes much more difficult to suggest State Intervention as a completely worthwhile and beneficial endeavor. Because of this point, a serious consideration between the human rights violations and the positive benefits resulting from economic growth is needed before a definitive conclusion can be made on behalf of State Intervention as it affects everything, not just relation to
America is considered the land of possibility to many, the land of the free. There is a plethora of businesses that function only through the collaboration of members that reside in every level of social class. As Anyon puts it, “… social class describes relationships which we as adults have developed, may attempt to maintain, and in which we participate in every working day”(anyon 398). One’s social class contains and is built by many different interactions. Your social class begins to be constructed at birth and is developed through interactions in the community, work place, and before all else places of education. Indeed the skills and level of thinking learned through education is a deciding factor in how strongly you can participate in the economy there for determining a major factor in social class (Anyon 398 p. 10). This topic is discussed in articles written by (Kozol, Matzios, and Jean Anyon) who pose similar arguments to reinforce this observation but also have contrasting ideas on the subject.