Essay Database

In his book The Unheavenly City, political scientist Edward Banfield explains urban poverty as the end result of what he calls "the logic of metropolitan growth," (23). Many of the urban poor, Banfield argues, come to the city in search of better opportunities, bringing with them lower-class behavior patterns that are passed on to their children and that are inconsistent with the labor markets in urban areas and the polite sensibilities of the upper-class, urban inhabitants. …

…ambitions, and opportunities. By analyzing the intergenerational models of poverty transmission, we have distinguished inherent and underlying structural conditions that drive the behavior of the "lower-class" and relegate the poor to a culture of poverty. Only by working to improve societal social structure will we be able to help these disadvantaged individuals gain the self-esteem within themselves and the resources and opportunities from their society to once again believe in the "American Dream" of success.