The Extent of Poverty and Pauperism in the United States.—There are no accurate figures showing the extent of poverty in the United States. |The number of paupers in public institutions.| The census of 1920 listed nearly a million persons in charitable institutions of one sort or another, of whom about one hundred thousand were paupers in public almshouses. But this census made no computation of the number receiving poor-relief in their own homes, which must be several times as large as that in institutions. It would probably be within bounds to say that five persons out of every hundred in the United States are partly or wholly dependent upon private or public aid. Probably as many more are in a condition of poverty, but continue to struggle along without assistance from others. We may say, therefore, that poverty holds about ten per cent of the whole population in its iron grip; hence it is no exaggeration to speak, as social-workers often do, of the “submerged tenth”.
Comparison with Europe.
Compared with other countries, however, this is not an excessive proportion. In the countries of Europe the percentage of paupers is much larger. Poverty is usually more widespread in thickly-populated regions where there are large groups of industrial workers. In London it has been estimated that at least thirty per cent of the people are below the poverty line; in New York City the estimate is twenty-five per cent. The cities everywhere contribute far more than their due proportion to the impoverished classes. Poverty is least prevalent, as a rule, in the agricultural districts.[[260]]
The Causes of Poverty.—The causes of poverty are numerous and complicated but they can all be grouped into two general classes: First, those which are traceable to the individual, and second, those which are attributable to the environment in which he lives. These we may distinguish by calling them individual and social causes.
1. Individual causes of poverty.
Among the individual causes of poverty the most common are illness, accident, old age, degeneracy, bereavement, intemperance, shiftlessness, and ignorance. Illness is probably the most important single cause. The figures compiled by poor-relief organizations show that it is the immediate reason for at least one-quarter of all the applications which come to them for assistance, and is a contributory reason in the case of many more. Accidents which result in either temporary or permanent incapacity to do full work have also been an important cause of poverty in the past, but they are no longer so to the same extent in those states which have made provision for workmen’s insurance (see p. [411]). Old age comes to all in time and there are many thousands who make no provision for its coming. This class includes many who have worked hard all their lives, have reared families, and have been useful citizens, but who have been either unable or unwilling to save. In some European countries, as has been pointed out, provision is made for them by means of old age pension systems. Bereavement, particularly the loss by death of the family’s main support, has been a frequent cause of poverty among women and children. To some extent this has been alleviated by the practice of making provision for mothers’ pensions and by the increasing extent to which men who have dependents are now securing life insurance.
Mental and moral degeneracy.
Degeneracy, which is also an important cause of poverty, may be defined as inherited mental or moral weakness. Feeble-minded parents often transmit this defect to their children, who start life with a handicap which they are not usually able to overcome. It has been estimated that nearly one-half of all the inmates of public institutions are below the normal standard of mentality. Many years ago a careful study was made of a certain family—the Jukes—through four generations, great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and children. Among seven hundred persons in this family, beginning with degenerate great-grandparents, no fewer than five hundred became at some time or other recipients of public poor-relief. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that they also contributed far more than their due proportion to the prisons and insane asylums.
Physical handicaps.
Then, again, some people who are neither mentally nor morally degenerate, are born with physical handicaps or acquire these handicaps early in life; such, for instance, are the deaf-mutes, the blind, and the crippled. They are the ones whom we most commonly meet on the public streets begging or selling trinkets, or playing some sort of instrument as an excuse for what is really begging. Intemperance, too, has figured largely among the causes of poverty during many centuries, but so far as the United States is concerned it is not likely to do so in the future. Alcohol is one of the important factors in the problem of poverty which can be placed under control by the action of society. Shiftlessness, ignorance, bad habits, and vice are all causes of varying importance, but in the main they are only immediate causes; the underlying causes are usually to be found in some mental, moral, or physical defect of the individual, or they arise from a poor environment.