Herbert Gans describes in this writing how society benefits from the poor and how our society would be without them. He states “Associating poverty with positive functions seems at first glance to be unimaginable (Henslin, 2017, p. 377).” The individuals who we may consider poor are the ones who do tasks others won’t ever consider doing. If we didn’t have these individuals, it would require the rich to do more work.
My father raised his children to treat the janitor the same way we would a CEO of a company, with courtesy and respect. I did not understand that saying until I entered the workforce myself. Basically, my father was pointing out each role is required for that company to be successful. A message I passed on to my own children. The CEO is busy making decisions to increase business and does not have time to take the trash out nor mop the floors. In turn, the company required a janitor to keep the facility’s multi-million dollar appearance.
Gans describes how society needs the poor to function as a whole. Jobs are created for the rich to look good such as maids, drivers, and nannies, to name a few. It amuses me to hear my friends tell me I should have hired a housekeeper and landscaper for more free time. Honestly, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself with the extra time. I always maintain my own home and yard, even when I made a six-figure income. My income was drastically reduced when I found myself injured on the job and in an extremely slow-paced workman’s comp system. I reflect how I would have I appeared to others if I had hired these people and had to let them go because financially I could not maintain their positions. Even though I was raised tending to my own tasks, many of my associates would never see themselves doing so.
The poor, unfortunately, is needed in a society to help in medical research (Henslin, 2017: 378). Many clinical trials lure the poor to their research as guinea pigs with money (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2598135/). This helps with the advances of medical research. Also, the poor because of their inadequate pay, and lack of benefits are not in the best of health, another factor that lures them to participate in clinical research. However, these advancements also help the rich become richer when there is a new medical discovery.
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