Tommie Shelby's 'The Plight Of The Poor'

The Plight of the Poor
Many critics of the poor believe that they should take personal responsibility for their substandard living conditions; they only live in these conditions because of their own life choices and poor attitudes. However, according to Tommie Shelby’s Justice, Deviance, and the Dark Ghetto, the social conditions of the poor are due to failure of the government and affluent citizens to improve the underprivileged lives of the ghetto poor. If a person is criticized for turning down a menial job at low wages and applying for small welfare payments instead, Shelby would argue that the critic should not demand labor from those who do not receive the same benefits as the rest of society, because the social system is inequitable. In a fair system of social cooperation, there is reciprocity between people who regard each other as equals (page 127). This should be taken into consideration when criticizing the poor. Why should they be expected to play their part in social cooperation if they do not get to receive the same benefits? The poor are clearly not regarded as equal, in terms of granted opportunities, to a person from a higher class in society.
The aspects of a person’s life are not entirely determined by the circumstances he is born into – his decisions, the actions of others, and luck plays a large role as well. Since people are autonomous, they control how their lives turn out, but everyone’s life prospects are more “deeply shaped by a social structure that he or she did not choose” (page 130). This means that the poor are not entirely at fault for their living conditions; society’s structure may also affect their life outcomes. Not every citizen is granted equal opportunities, so not everyone should have the same social