it was the prompt from the summer essay; access why over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries colonists went from considering themselves British subjects to indentifying themselves as Americans…
-Robber Barons were attacked very much, but believed that they had a commandment from God to help the poor (THE GOSPEL OF WEALTH)…
From the late medieval era to the enlightenment a series of plagues devastated European society, economy, and social/political structure. In the Middle Ages, the Black Plague (or Death) was a pandemic that killed nearly 2/3 of the population in Europe, and lead to the downfall of the feudal system. The groups that benefited the most from the changes caused by the Black Death were peasants and laborers reaction toward the calamity ranged from rational and proactive to irrational, egoistic, and even criminal. Over all, the human devastation revealed a growth over time in government role and the role of the educated class in serving society, while uncovering a persistent criticism of the upper classes and the common people.…
The second chapter is an overview of societal methods of dealing with poverty and homelessness from the time of Martin Luther and after. As Gowen says “the charity activists, like Martin Luther 350 years earlier, were nostalgic for a radiant past when rich and poor had interacted more intimately, with less overt conflict” (Gowen/HHB, pg 35) To add to world history, there is also specific history about San Francisco, including the program called Matrix of the Frank Jordan era through “Care Not Cash”. Gowan discusses the dialog around the constructions of poverty, a moral viewpoint where sin is the cause, a disease viewpoint, and a systemic viewpoint. She points out that these discourses are taken up not only by authorities but also by homeless people themselves. Somebody who is considered a bad boy is somebody who is buying into the sin-talk viewpoint; the sick-talk viewpoint is common among people who have left the street through 12-step recovery; system talk is formulated in various ways, including identification with veterans who have been abandoned by the system. The theories of John Locke play a key role in the previous sentence. As Locke’s theories state that each person should be guaranteed “life, liberty, and estate.” The veterans who were left with nothing by the government and had to survive off of nothing did not fall under Locke’s theory, not given a type of life they needed, not given the same liberty as the rest of the people who are not considered homeless, and not given any estate to call their own like a rich man does.…
Most of the negatives attitudes come from people of high government positions. One says that “Idleness is harmful to the public good and should not be tolerated. Idlers should not be considered as poor. This person also believes that people who are unwilling to work should not live in the city (Doc 5). A Spanish humanist says that those living under the subsistence level are forced to thievery, prostitution, and sorcery. He also says that people feel obligated to give the poor money but don’t, some are…
Health and Social care in Britain during the medieval periods was only available through local parish churches, where it was believed to be a Christian duty to undertake the ‘Seven Corporal Works of Mercy’ (Jones 2006).The provision and entitlement of care varied between the many different areas causing many of the poor to migrate to the more generous areas (ibid). This increased the levels of begging and crime creating concerns about social disorder after the reformation of the Church of England when the population’s values began to change towards the poor (Slack 1990). This resulted in the government introducing a series of Acts resulting in the 1601 Poor Law Act, the first appearance of society providing for the…
During the 16th Century, Europe and the Holy Roman Empire was experiencing a grand accumulation of uprisings. Along with the Protestant Reformation (1517) and the Dutch Revolt (1568-1609), the Germanic states and the Holy Roman Empire were home to one of the most significant peasant revolts in European history, the revolt of 1524. Causes of the revolt include the unfair treatment of serfs by nobles and the evolution of Lutheranism and protestant reform in peasant culture. The nobles were under the assumption that the commoners would follow them blindly with regard to rules and therefore treated the poor as slaves to do their bidding. In addition, the peasants looked towards the protestant revolution and felt that if someone could speak out against the church, they could also speak out against their constricting authority in the name of God. At first, the strikes were turning in the peasant’s favor while the government had yet to respond to the pillaging of its lands. The inevitable responses of the authority, however, were less than favorable. Martin Luther, who was once looked upon with admiration by common folk betrayed them in an attempt to keep his religious from sinking. He told Charles V to crush the revolution and wrote a book condemning the movement called Against Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, and Charles gladly obliged. By 1525, the revolution was suppressed and hundreds of thousands were left dead. In the aftermath, the peasants were given no freedoms for which they fought and were embedded back into their pre-revolt lifestyle with the added bonus of increased security to prevent any further actions. Under the Twelve Articles of the Peasants of Swabia, the counsel clearly relays that if the Lords would have treated the serfs with respect and kindness, then the poor would have no reason to resort to violence. They declare that they refuse to give in to the oppression and wish to be treated properly and with appropriate pay for their labor…
In Europe between 1450 and 1700, demonstrated many diverse attitudes in response to the high levels of poverty, including the belief that the poor needed help and treatment, should be punished and regulated, and that they are indolent.…
Today, poverty is prevalent throughout the world with 80% of humanity living on less than $10 a day. However, this isn’t the first time poverty is seen so frequently in society. During the Renaissance, approximately 50% of Europe’s population lived at a subsistence level with 80% of Europeans facing possible starvation in times of peril. In the midst of this time period, as poverty ran rampant it led to differing attitudes towards helping the poor as well as the concept of poverty. Poverty was viewed by the upper class as well as humanists as a negative influence to society due to characteristics like idleness which was thought to be the beginning of all evils. Meanwhile, religious officials like the clergy as well as artists thought that the poor should be assisted for spiritual benefits and believed that aiding the poor was only…
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.…
In the article, "Famine, Affluence, and Morality," by Peter Singer, he is addressing the subject of charity, morality in general, and giving us a different insight in the thoughts about famine relief. Singer points out some interesting things in his article. I do agree that people, espeically the rich, should do more than what most of them actually do. This paper will explain Singer 's goal, his counter arguments, his concept of marginal utility, and the ideas of charity and duty.…
Due to poverty, begging was a crime that was often committed. Vagrants and rogues were people who had no home, or job, and survived only by begging for money or food. People were generally afraid of them because they often traveled in large groups and became violent. The punishment for begging was to be put in the stocks, be tied up to the back of a cart, then be whipped out of town. The people who were thought to be ‘helpless poor’ were old, sick, or disabled. They generally received a license to beg since the government knew it was not their fault that they were in that position.…
When an individual thinks of religion, the first thing that comes to a believer’s mind is the nonnegotiable worship of a supreme being(s) as a source of tranquility whenever he/she is in distress. On the other hand, to a pro-secularization individual, religion only causes pricey conflicts between different cultures and is considered an outdated practice which should not have a place in today’s society. What people in general tend to forget about religion is that it their respective figures like Prophet Muhammad and Jesus wanted to promote a way of life that would aim to achieve a standard of living that would see all members of the community equal. And a big part of any way of life is fair trade and decreasing the gap between the rich and the poor. This essay will compare and contrast the early Christian and the current Muslim prohibitions against lending money at interest in the context of today’s constant recession-threatening environment.…
To me serving the poor means to help others with nothing in return, but I don't commonly see people serving or helping others the way they should be. When I think about the poor I think about how I would feel if I was in their shoes. I see people serving the poor in our world by donating different types of clothes and shoes to the salvation army so that it allows children all around the world to be provided with different types of clothing to cover them and to make them warm. whenever I am on my way home from school I would see people begging on the streets, or even just laying on a blanket under a bridge but when ever they beg or ask for money or food I would watch as my mother or my father goes to the nearest restaurant or store to at least buy them something to eat or drink so that they know that their money is being used for the right reason, because some people who beg for money just beg so that they can go out and buy a box of cigarettes or drugs when they know for a fact that they are hurting themselves and the people around them. But there is still good in the world because I once saw a man give a homeless person one hundred dollars for no reason at all and I just thought how crazy it was for someone to give a random person one hundred dollars as and act of kindness and I also heard about a man begging for money in Missouri when he found a ring in the cup that he uses when he begs and instead of selling the ring and keeping the profits for himself he went out on a search for the owner and when he found the owner the owner was very grateful and was kind enough to give the man all the money she had in her wallet at the moment just because she was thankful that the man returned her ring in perfect condition…
Poggie gives three main approaches to the global poverty to convince people to let them know that poverty is bad and that people must make actions to go against the poverty. The three approaches are 1) the effects of shared institutions, 2) uncompensated exclusion from the use of natured resources 3) the effects of a common and violent history and they are all compatible with each other. They basically require that better off people are responsible to make actions to make worse off people better. Throughout this essay, I will be defending and focusing on the view of injustice of radical inequality which not only does it exist but also is unjust. This view goes with the Second approach, which is compatible with redeems, and the rest of the approaches will be left for another time.…