2. What do you think Gans's main point is?
What do you think of it?

I think Gans's main point is that the poor
are unjustly stereotyped and that they are
victims of the wealthy. On page 311 he
says, "Although people have a right to
judge each other, that right does not
extend to judging large numbers of
people as a single group, with one
common moral fault, or to stereotyping
them without evidence either about their
behavior or their values."

Throughout his article he gives "positive
functions" of the "undeserving poor."
While reading these, it seemed as
though he was making quite a stretch to
get some of those. Which I think is a valid
thing to do, because a lot of people who
like to blame all of society's problems on
the poor tend to do the same. In a way, it
seems Gans was making a mockery of
some of the stereotypes and judgements
given to the poor. (Maybe that was just my
opinion....) I think Gans is right. Just
because somebody lives on Poverty
Boulevard doesn't mean that they use
drugs, sleep around, or sell babies on
the black market........ My family, growing
up, always lived in crumby apartments or
poor parts of town because my single
mother was a mere secretary. We had all
kinds of love and happiness. We would
just stuff rags in the vents to keep the
smell of cigarette smoke from filtering
through from the apartment above us. Not
everybody is in the same boat.

Sometimes when I'm driving somewhere
and there's a lot of traffic, I marvel to think
that EVERY PERSON on that road with
me has a different story. I different life
story and a different destination. Isn't that
amazing? So I feel it's completely
ridiculous to negatively judge a HUGE
group of people as exactly the same.