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Spring 2014. Language Arts Laboratory: Final Exam.

This portion of the final exam will consist of four parts: Part One: Two multiple-choice sectionsPart Two: Short Answer SectionPart Three: Literary Analysis Part Four: Argumentative Essay

Please do not write on this exam. Use the answer sheet provided to put your responses down.

Part One: Multiple Choice. Each question will be worth 3 points. (Standard Assessed: 9-10. R.L. 4) Readability: 4.6What do the words mean in a text? What is the surface level and what is the deeper level meaning? How do these words affect the meaning and tone?

Directions: For each question, first decide which answer is best. Next, locate on the answer document the row of letters numbered the same as the question. Locate the letter in the row that corresponds to your answer. Finally, fill in the letter completely. Use a soft lead pencil and make your marks heavy and black. Do not use ink or a mechanical pencil. Mark only one answer to each question.

In this section, you will be reading an excerpt from a story we have read in class. Please read the excerpt carefully and make sure that you read the questions in its entirety before you select an answer.

A. I admit it. I’ve been scared shitless lots of times. But I was never as shook as when the gun in Eddie’s hand went off. It thundered inside that car like the whole world was coming to an end. I never expected Eddie to pull the trigger, by accident or any other way. I guess that was a big part of it too. In all the time Eddie had that gun, we never shot it off once. It was just for show, so we could get our hands on some quick money. That’s all. We never flashed it around in front of our friends or anything. It was just for us to know about.

B. I was more scared for that man we shot than anything else. I didn’t even know he got clipped in the head until Eddie told me later. The gun went off and I closed my eyes. I shut them so tight, I thought my eyelids would squeeze them right out of their sockets. I only opened them again to

find the handle on the door, so I could get out of that car and take off running.C. That damn sound was ringing in my ears. There was no way to outrun that. I couldn’t hear the air pumping in and out of my lungs, or the sound of my feet hitting against the concrete. And I didn’t know that Eddie wasn’t right behind me until I was halfway home, and peeked back over my shoulder. Then I looked back for him again, even though I knew he wasn’t there.

D. I ran to my crib on instinct, and I guessed Eddie did the same. But I wished he was right there with me to explain what happened. I had to know right then. My brain was going twice as fast as my feet. I didn’t know how to slow it down or what to think about first. I just needed to tell Eddie I had seen that man someplace before. I could still see his round, black face in front of me, like he was somebody I passed on the


streets a hundred times. And I was praying to God with every breath I took the man wasn’t dead.

E. My name is Marcus Brown, but almost everybody outside my family calls me “Black.” That’s because they’re used to seeing me all the time with my boy, Eddie Russo. Eddie is White. Kids who are different colors don’t get to be that tight in my neighborhood. But we got past all that racial crap, until we were almost like real blood brothers. So somebody came up with the tag “Black and White” for us, and it stuck. It got more hype because we played basketball and football for Long Island City High School. We were two of the best players they ever had. Everybody who goes there knows about us. We even made the newspapers for winning big games a couple of times. Scouts from lots of colleges came to see us play. Some of them wanted to sign up the both of us, and keep what we had going. But that’s all finished with now.

F. I don’t remember if the idea of robbing people came up before Eddie snuck out his dead grandfather’s gun or not. But once the two of those things were square in front of us, they fit together right. We weren’t trying to get rich off it. We were just looking for enough money to keep up.

G. Lots of kids we knew either hustled drugs for their loot, or pulled little stickups on the street. But drug dealers and ball players usually hold down opposite ends of the park, shooting looks at each other over who runs the place. That’s how it was for Eddie and me with them.

H. The football team always had two or three posses that ripped people off. They would wave their dough around at parties and latch onto the best girls. Some of them even bought rides with their money, while

Eddie and me wore out the bottoms of our good kicks walking. And whenever those dudes went out to celebrate after a big win, we were like two charity cases. Then word started getting out among the right females that Black and White were strictly welfare.

I. Eddie’s family has more money than mine. They live two blocks down and across the street from the Ravenswood Houses, in a private house with a front porch. Eddie has a mother and a father, and they both work. Eddie gets an allowance that’s only a little bigger than what I get to go to school with every week. But if Eddie ever needed $20 for something, he could put his hand out and probably get it. My mother has always been tight like that. The only money coming in is from her sewing jobs, and what the state sends her every month to take care of me and my little sister.

J. Senior dues were $150, and the end of February was the deadline. You either paid it or missed out on everything good that went along with graduating, like the class trips to Bear Mountain and Six Flags. It took me almost three months to save that kind of money. Eddie put a lock on his wallet too, and we were just about there.

K. Then around the middle of January, Nike came out with the new Marauders. Everybody on the basketball team was buying a pair because they came in maroon and powder blue, the same as our school colors. We were the main attraction on that squad. There was no way we were getting caught behind the times like that. So we spent most of our dough on new basketball kicks. That left us with just over a month to get the money we needed for dues. We didn’t know how. But we made a pact that either both of us would come up with the cash, or we’d miss out on everything together.


L. Teenagers can get a job easy in some place like McDonald’s or Burger King. It’s honest, but it’s low-rent too. Kids at school and around our way already treated us like stars. And we were going to be even bigger one day. First in college, and then the pros. So we decided Black and White shouldn’t be serving up fries in those stupid hats for everybody to see. Besides, there was almost no way to juggle going to practice every day and having a job.

M. That’s when Eddie first snuck out the gun, thinking we could sell it. We knew a kid who paid almost $300 for a .38-caliber just like it. But Eddie’s father knew where the gun was supposed to be, and might go looking for it one day. Eddie couldn’t blame something like that on his sister. His father would have known it was him, straight off. So we figured that we could borrow the gun any time, then put it back. That’s how we came to do stickups.

1. The point of view from which the passage is told can best be described as that of: A. A student looking into the future contemplating what he will do next in his life. B. A student looking back on a significant moment that changed his life. C. An unidentified narrator telling a story about something that happened to

someone he once knew. D. A family member of someone who committed a crime and got away with it.

2. In section A, the phrase “quick money” is referring to: A. Money that taken from a savings account.B. Money that is gone quickly from your account. C. Money that is quick and easy to get. D. Money that is hard to get but easy to get rid of.

3. The italicized portion in Section C is used as: A. ForeshadowB. Basis for interpretationC. A curveball for the readerD. Explanation

4. In Section E, the phrase blood brothers most nearly means: A. Long lost brothers who didn’t know they were related until later on.B. Twins who didn’t know they were twins.C. Two people who were not really related but treated one another like they were. D. Brothers who hated each other but felt obligated to love one another.

5. Section F is used as: A. ForeshadowB. Basis for interpretationC. A curveball for the readerD. Explanation


6. In Section H, the phrase strictly welfare means:A. They are wealthy but hide their wealth.B. They are poor and cannot afford nice things.C. They are neither poor nor rich. D. They are wealthy and show off their wealth.

7. The underlined phrase in Section K shows what? A. Black and White’s hatred for one another.B. Black and White’s trust in one another.C. Black and White’s hatred of always doing things together. D. Black and White’s strong friendship with one another.

8. In Section L, low-rent means: A. It costs little but has high reward.B. It costs a lot but has little reward.C. It gives a person a low reputation.D. It gives a person a high reputation.

9. Based on this excerpt, who comes up with the idea to do stick-ups? A. They came up with it together.B. Marcus. C. Eddie. D. Eddie’s family.

10. Based on the last line in Section M, what can we infer will happen next? A. Marcus and Eddie will pay their senior dues and participate in all the senior

activities. B. Marcus and Eddie will participate in illegal activities and will pay the price.C. Marcus and Eddie will become master criminals. D. Marcus and Eddie will become murderers on the run.


Part Two:

Directions: Choose the best answer to the question provided. Please read through each question carefully before answering it. Each question will be worth 3 points.

11. When reading a story, what is the best way to remember key information in the text? A. Highlight key information and annotate while reading.B. Skim instead of read the actual text.C. Wait to read the text until it is discussed in class.D. Read the first and last sentence of each chapter.

12. What is the tone in a paragraph or story? A. The conclusion and resolution.B. The mood of the story. C. The way the main character feels.D. The conflict in the story.

13. What is the main idea in a story? A. Insignificant information in a storyB. Minor details in a story that don’t affect the plot.C. Important information that tells more about the overall idea of a text.D. Important information that is meant to confuse the reader.

14. What does it mean to analyze a story? A. Read it for the surface level meaning.B. Summarize the story so you remember what it is about.C. Pick and choose important parts of the story.D. Determine how and why something happens in order to understand the text.

15. Definition: hints that an author gives to help define a difficult or unusual word. The hints may appear within the same sentence as the word to which it refers, or it may follow in a preceding sentence.

A. Context CluesB. Main IdeaC. Text Analysis D. Annotation Key

16. The thesis of your essay should: A. Explain one key point in your essay.B. Explain the topic of your essay and your stance on the topic.C. Explain two key points in your essay.D. Explain nothing about your essay.


17. What is the first step in the writing process? A. Figure out how you will end your essayB. Write out your body paragraphsC. Brainstorm what you will write aboutD. Edit your essay and fix your mistakes

18. What is an example of evidence from the text? A. The author’s name.B. A quote from the textC. Your own opinion of the storyD. A prediction about what will happen next.

19. What does it mean to summarize a text? A. Explain, in paragraph form, the key points of a story. B. Make comments about the plot events of a story. C. Determine how and why something happens.D. Fill in the blanks if the author left things out in the story

20. When answering a reading comprehension question or essay prompt, what are the key elements you must include?

A. The answer to the question and maybe some evidence. B. The answer to the question and evidence.C. Evidence, your own opinion, and answer to the questionD. The answer, evidence, explanation of evidence, and connect to self.


Part Three: Short Answer/Writing Prompts (Standards Assessed: 9-10. R.I. 1, R.L. 3, R.L. 2) Readability: 6.6- What is the central idea of the text? How does it develop over time? How do the details change the story? How does a summary help us remember the story? - How does citing the text support our analysis? How do we infer based on things we read in the text?- How do characters develop over the course of a text? How do they interact with others? How do they move the plot along?

Each short answer/writing prompt will be worth 5 points.

Directions : Read through the short story A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane and answer the questions written in bold embedded in the story. Please write your answers on loose-leaf paper. Your responses should be written in complete sentences—5-6 sentences each.

A Dark Brown Dogby Stephen Crane

A Child was standing on a street-corner. He leaned with one shoulder against a high board-fence and swayed the other to and fro, the while kicking carelessly at the gravel.Sunshine beat upon the cobbles, and a lazy summer wind raised yellow dust which trailed in clouds down the avenue. Clattering trucks moved with indistinctness through it. The child stood dreamily gazing.

After a time, a little dark-brown dog came trotting with an intent air down the sidewalk. A short rope was dragging from his neck. Occasionally he trod upon the end of it and stumbled.

He stopped opposite the child, and the two regarded each other. The dog hesitated for a moment, but presently he made some little advances with his tail. The child put out his hand and called him. In an apologetic manner the dog came close, and the two had an interchange of friendly pattings and waggles. The dog became more enthusiastic with each moment of the interview, until with his gleeful caperings he threatened to overturn the child. Whereupon the child lifted his hand and struck the dog a blow upon the head.

Question #21: How does the tone of the story change from the first paragraph to the third paragraph?

This thing seemed to overpower and astonish the little dark-brown dog, and wounded him to the heart. He sank down in despair at the child's feet. When the blow was repeated, together with an admonition in childish sentences, he turned over upon his back, and held his paws in a peculiar manner. At the same time with his ears and his eyes he offered a small prayer to the child.

Question #22: Using context clues, what is the definition of admonition? Explain how you came to your conclusion.


He looked so comical on his back, and holding his paws peculiarly, that the child was greatly amused and gave him little taps repeatedly, to keep him so. But the little dark-brown dog took this chastisement in the most serious way, and no doubt considered that he had committed some grave crime, for he wriggled contritely and showed his repentance in every way that was in his power. He pleaded with the child and petitioned him, and offered more prayers.

At last the child grew weary of this amusement and turned toward home. The dog was praying at the time. He lay on his back and turned his eyes upon the retreating form.Presently he struggled to his feet and started after the child. The latter wandered in a perfunctory way toward his home, stopping at times to investigate various matters. During one of these pauses he discovered the little dark-brown dog who was following him with the air of a footpad.

The child beat his pursuer with a small stick he had found. The dog lay down and prayed until the child had finished, and resumed his journey. Then he scrambled erect and took up the pursuit again.

Question #23: What is going on between the dog and the boy? Why do you think the boy is treating the dog like this?

On the way to his home the child turned many times and beat the dog, proclaiming with childish gestures that he held him in contempt as an unimportant dog, with no value save for a moment. For being this quality of animal the dog apologized and eloquently expressed regret, but he continued stealthily to follow the child. His manner grew so very guilty that he slunk like an assassin.

When the child reached his door-step, the dog was industriously ambling a few yards in the rear. He became so agitated with shame when he again confronted the child that he forgot the dragging rope. He tripped upon it and fell forward.

The child sat down on the step and the two had another interview. During it the dog greatly exerted himself to please the child. He performed a few gambols with such abandon that the child suddenly saw him to be a valuable thing. He made a swift, avaricious charge and seized the rope.

He dragged his captive into a hall and up many long stairways in a dark tenement. The dog made willing efforts, but he could not hobble very skillfully up the stairs because he was very small and soft, and at last the pace of the engrossed child grew so energetic that the dog became panic-stricken. In his mind he was being dragged toward a grim unknown. His eyes grew wild with the terror of it. He began to wiggle his head frantically and to brace his legs.

Question #24: Why do you think the author has chosen to write in this way? What emotion is he trying to evoke inside the audience?

The child redoubled his exertions. They had a battle on the stairs. The child was victorious because he was completely absorbed in his purpose, and because the dog was very small. He dragged his acquirement to the door of his home, and finally with triumph across the threshold.


No one was in. The child sat down on the floor and made overtures to the dog. These the dog instantly accepted. He beamed with affection upon his new friend. In a short time they were firm and abiding comrades.

Question #25: The word affection in this story is used very differently than in a conventional way. How is it used in this paragraph? How is it used to explain the relationship between dog and boy?

When the child's family appeared, they made a great row. The dog was examined and commented upon and called names. Scorn was leveled at him from all eyes, so that he became much embarrassed and drooped like a scorched plant. But the child went sturdily to the center of the floor, and, at the top of his voice, championed the dog. It happened that he was roaring protestations, with his arms clasped about the dog's neck, when the father of the family came in from work.

The parent demanded to know what the blazes they were making the kid howl for. It was explained in many words that the infernal kid wanted to introduce a disreputable dog into the family.

A family council was held. On this depended the dog's fate, but he in no way heeded, being busily engaged in chewing the end of the child's dress.

The affair was quickly ended. The father of the family, it appears, was in a particularly savage temper that evening, and when he perceived that it would amaze and anger everybody if such a dog were allowed to remain, he decided that it should be so. The child, crying softly, took his friend off to a retired part of the room to hobnob with him, while the father quelled a fierce rebellion of his wife. So it came to pass that the dog was a member of the household.

He and the child were associated together at all times save when the child slept. The child became a guardian and a friend. If the large folk kicked the dog and threw things at him, the child made loud and violent objections. Once when the child had run, protesting loudly, with tears raining down his face and his arms outstretched, to protect his friend, he had been struck in the head with a very large saucepan from the hand of his father, enraged at some seeming lack of courtesy in the dog. Ever after, the family were careful how they threw things at the dog. Moreover, the latter grew very skilful in avoiding missiles and feet. In a small room containing a stove, a table, a bureau and some chairs, he would display strategic ability of a high order, dodging, feinting and scuttling about among the furniture. He could force three or four people armed with brooms, sticks and handfuls of coal, to use all their ingenuity to get in a blow. And even when they did, it was seldom that they could do him a serious injury or leave any imprint.

Question #26: How has the relationship between dog and boy changed from the beginning until now. What prediction can you make based on this paragraph?


But when the child was present, these scenes did not occur. It came to be recognized that if the dog was molested, the child would burst into sobs, and as the child, when started, was very riotous and practically unquenchable, the dog had therein a safeguard.

However, the child could not always be near. At night, when he was asleep, his dark-brown friend would raise from some black corner a wild, wailful cry, a song of infinite lowliness and despair, that would go shuddering and sobbing among the buildings of the block and cause people to swear. At these times the singer would often be chased all over the kitchen and hit with a great variety of articles.

Sometimes, too, the child himself used to beat the dog, although it is not known that he ever had what could be truly called a just cause. The dog always accepted these thrashings with an air of admitted guilt. He was too much of a dog to try to look to be a martyr or to plot revenge. He received the blows with deep humility, and furthermore he forgave his friend the moment the child had finished, and was ready to caress the child's hand with his little red tongue.

Question #27: Why do you think the dog took the beatings? Why do you think the child kept on with the beatings?

When misfortune came upon the child, and his troubles overwhelmed him, he would often crawl under the table and lay his small distressed head on the dog's back. The dog was ever sympathetic. It is not to be supposed that at such times he took occasion to refer to the unjust beatings his friend, when provoked, had administered to him.He did not achieve any notable degree of intimacy with the other members of the family. He had no confidence in them, and the fear that he would express at their casual approach often exasperated them exceedingly. They used to gain a certain satisfaction in underfeeding him, but finally his friend the child grew to watch the matter with some care, and when he forgot it, the dog was often successful in secret for himself.

Question #28: What is the relationship between the boy and his family? How does this help to explain the boy’s behavior?

So the dog prospered. He developed a large bark, which came wondrously from such a small rug of a dog. He ceased to howl persistently at night. Sometimes, indeed, in his sleep, he would utter little yells, as from pain, but that occurred, no doubt, when in his dreams he encountered huge flaming dogs who threatened him direfully.

His devotion to the child grew until it was a sublime thing. He wagged at his approach; he sank down in despair at his departure. He could detect the sound of the child's step among all the noises of the neighborhood. It was like a calling voice to him.

The scene of their companionship was a kingdom governed by this terrible potentate, the child; but neither criticism nor rebellion ever lived for an instant in the heart of the one subject. Down in the mystic, hidden fields of his little dog-soul bloomed flowers of love and fidelity and perfect faith.


Question #29: Based on context clues, what does the word potenate mean? Explain how you came to your conclusion.

The child was in the habit of going on many expeditions to observe strange things in the vicinity. On these occasions his friend usually jogged aimfully along behind. Perhaps, though, he went ahead. This necessitated his turning around every quarter-minute to make sure the child was coming. He was filled with a large idea of the importance of these journeys. He would carry himself with such an air! He was proud to be the retainer of so great a monarch.

One day, however, the father of the family got quite exceptionally drunk. He came home and held carnival with the cooking utensils, the furniture and his wife. He was in the midst of this recreation when the child, followed by the dark-brown dog, entered the room. They were returning from their voyages.

The child's practised eye instantly noted his father's state. He dived under the table, where experience had taught him was a rather safe place. The dog, lacking skill in such matters, was, of course, unaware of the true condition of affairs. He looked with interested eyes at his friend's sudden dive. He interpreted it to mean: Joyous gambol. He started to patter across the floor to join him. He was the picture of a little dark-brown dog en route to a friend.

The head of the family saw him at this moment. He gave a huge howl of joy, and knocked the dog down with a heavy coffee-pot. The dog, yelling in supreme astonishment and fear, writhed to his feet and ran for cover. The man kicked out with a ponderous foot. It caused the dog to swerve as if caught in a tide. A second blow of the coffee-pot laid him upon the floor.

Here the child, uttering loud cries, came valiantly forth like a knight. The father of the family paid no attention to these calls of the child, but advanced with glee upon the dog. Upon being knocked down twice in swift succession, the latter apparently gave up all hope of escape. He rolled over on his back and held his paws in a peculiar manner. At the same time with his eyes and his ears he offered up a small prayer.

But the father was in a mood for having fun, and it occurred to him that it would be a fine thing to throw the dog out of the window. So he reached down and grabbing the animal by a leg, lifted him, squirming, up. He swung him two or three times hilariously about his head, and then flung him with great accuracy through the window.

The soaring dog created a surprise in the block. A woman watering plants in an opposite window gave an involuntary shout and dropped a flower-pot. A man in another window leaned perilously out to watch the flight of the dog. A woman, who had been hanging out clothes in a yard, began to caper wildly. Her mouth was filled with clothes-pins, but her arms gave vent to a sort of exclamation. In appearance she was like a gagged prisoner. Children ran whooping.

The dark-brown body crashed in a heap on the roof of a shed five stories below. From thence it rolled to the pavement of an alleyway.


The child in the room far above burst into a long, dirgelike cry, and toddled hastily out of the room. It took him a long time to reach the alley, because his size compelled him to go downstairs backward, one step at a time, and holding with both hands to the step above.

Question #30: Analyze the end to this short story. What do you think the deeper meaning is? Why?

Part Four: Argumentative essay YOU HAVE A COPY OF THIS ALREADY. YOU CAN USE YOUR OUTLINES (in your final exam review packet)

(Standard Assessed: W.1. A-E) How can we make arguments to support claims in order to analyze a text? How do we use valid reasoning and evidence from the text to support our argument?

Directions: In this essay you will choose a side and support your claims through evidence from the article provided. Your essay will be between 2-3 pages. Keep in min

Prompt: Can we ever get rid of poverty in the world or in America?

Format: follow the argumentative paper format (you may use your outlines here) Paragraph 1: Introduction Paragraph 2: Supportive Evidence #1 Paragraph 3: Supportive Evidence #2Paragraph 4: Supportive Evidence #3Paragraph 5: Conclusion


Article #1: Poverty in America: Why Can’t We End It?By PETER EDELMAN

RONALD REAGAN famously said, “We fought a war on poverty and poverty won.” With 46 million Americans — 15 percent of the population — now counted as poor, it’s tempting to think he may have been right.Look a little deeper and the temptation grows. The lowest percentage in poverty since we started counting was 11.1 percent in 1973. The rate climbed as high as 15.2 percent in 1983. In 2000, after a spurt of prosperity, it went back down to 11.3 percent, and yet 15 million more people are poor today.At the same time, we have done a lot that works. From Social Security to food stamps to the earned-income tax credit and on and on, we have enacted programs that now keep 40 million people out of poverty. Poverty would be nearly double what it is now without these measures, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. To say that “poverty won” is like saying the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts failed because there is still pollution.With all of that, why have we not achieved more? Four reasons: An astonishing number of people work at low-wage jobs. Plus, many more households are headed now by a single parent, making it difficult for them to earn a living income from the jobs that are typically available. The near disappearance of cash assistance for low-income mothers and children — i.e., welfare — in much of the country plays a contributing role, too. And persistent issues of race and gender mean higher poverty among minorities and families headed by single mothers.The first thing needed if we’re to get people out of poverty is more jobs that pay decent wages. There aren’t enough of these in our current economy. The need for good jobs extends far beyond the current crisis; we’ll need a full-employment policy and a bigger investment in 21st-century education and skill development strategies if we’re to have any hope of breaking out of the current economic malaise.This isn’t a problem specific to the current moment. We’ve been drowning in a flood of low-wage jobs for the last 40 years. Most of the income of people in poverty comes from work. According to the most recent data available from the Census Bureau, 104 million people — a third of the population — have annual incomes below twice the poverty line, less than $38,000 for a family of three. They struggle to make ends meet every month.Half the jobs in the nation pay less than $34,000 a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute. A quarter pay below the poverty line for a family of four, less than $23,000 annually. Families that can send another adult to work have done better, but single mothers (and fathers) don’t have that option. Poverty among families with children headed by single mothers exceeds 40 percent.Wages for those who work on jobs in the bottom half have been stuck since 1973, increasing just 7 percent.It’s not that the whole economy stagnated. There’s been growth, a lot of it, but it has stuck at the top. The realization that 99 percent of us have been left in the dust by the 1 percent at the top (some much further behind than others) came far later than it should have — Rip Van Winkle and then some. It took the Great Recession to get people’s attention, but the facts had been accumulating for a long time. If we’ve awakened, we can act.Low-wage jobs bedevil tens of millions of people. At the other end of the low-income spectrum we have a different problem. The safety net for single mothers and their children has developed a


gaping hole over the past dozen years. This is a major cause of the dramatic increase in extreme poverty during those years. The census tells us that 20.5 million people earn incomes below half the poverty line, less than about $9,500 for a family of three — up eight million from 2000.Why? A substantial reason is the near demise of welfare — now called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. In the mid-90s more than two-thirds of children in poor families received welfare. But that number has dwindled over the past decade and a half to roughly 27 percent.One result: six million people have no income other than food stamps. Food stamps provide an income at a third of the poverty line, close to $6,300 for a family of three. It’s hard to understand how they survive.At least we have food stamps. They have been a powerful antirecession tool in the past five years, with the number of recipients rising to 46 million today from 26.3 million in 2007. By contrast, welfare has done little to counter the impact of the recession; although the number of people receiving cash assistance rose from 3.9 million to 4.5 million since 2007, many states actually reduced the size of their rolls and lowered benefits to those in greatest need.Race and gender play an enormous part in determining poverty’s continuing course. Minorities are disproportionately poor: around 27 percent of African-Americans, Latinos and American Indians are poor, versus 10 percent of whites. Wealth disparities are even wider. At the same time, whites constitute the largest number among the poor. This is a fact that bears emphasis, since measures to raise income and provide work supports will help more whites than minorities. But we cannot ignore race and gender, both because they present particular challenges and because so much of the politics of poverty is grounded in those issues.We know what we need to do — make the rich pay their fair share of running the country, raise the minimum wage, provide health care and a decent safety net, and the like. But realistically, the immediate challenge is keeping what we have. Representative Paul Ryan and his ideological peers would slash everything from Social Security to Medicare and on through the list, and would hand out more tax breaks to the people at the top. Robin Hood would turn over in his grave.We should not kid ourselves. It isn’t certain that things will stay as good as they are now. The wealth and income of the top 1 percent grows at the expense of everyone else. Money breeds power and power breeds more money. It is a truly vicious circle.A surefire politics of change would necessarily involve getting people in the middle — from the 30th to the 70th percentile — to see their own economic self-interest. If they vote in their own self-interest, they’ll elect people who are likely to be more aligned with people with lower incomes as well as with them. As long as people in the middle identify more with people on the top than with those on the bottom, we are doomed. The obscene amount of money flowing into the electoral process makes things harder yet.But history shows that people power wins sometimes. That’s what happened in the Progressive Era a century ago and in the Great Depression as well. The gross inequality of those times produced an amalgam of popular unrest, organization, muckraking journalism and political leadership that attacked the big — and worsening — structural problem of economic inequality. The civil rights movement changed the course of history and spread into the women’s movement, the environmental movement and, later, the gay rights movement. Could we have said on the day before the dawn of each that it would happen, let alone succeed? Did Rosa Parks know?


We have the ingredients. For one thing, the demographics of the electorate are changing. The consequences of that are hardly automatic, but they create an opportunity. The new generation of young people — unusually distrustful of encrusted power in all institutions and, as a consequence, tending toward libertarianism — is ripe for a new politics of honesty. Lower-income people will participate if there are candidates who speak to their situations. The change has to come from the bottom up and from synergistic leadership that draws it out. When people decide they have had enough and there are candidates who stand for what they want, they will vote accordingly.I have seen days of promise and days of darkness, and I’ve seen them more than once. All history is like that. The people have the power if they will use it, but they have to see that it is in their interest to do so.

ARTICLE #2: Why Poverty is a necessary EvilPosted By Tabitha Hergest On October 8, 2013 @ 8:26 am In Political and Economic Theory | Comments Disabled

Poverty – what exactly is it?

This is a question not many people are prepared to answer – especially those who insist that its complete eradication is possible without a complete volte-face in the way the world operates. For poverty is – whether we like it or no – a condition of living. It may not be a condition to which everyone, save for the pious and other insane creatures, aspires – but its existence is built into the human, nay the animal, condition. In essence, it has to do with not having enough – in economic terms, a close relative of our old friend scarcity.

Of course, there is many a bleeding-heart do-gooder, a Utopian Marxist and a proletarian who says that it’s possible to make it history, but then they haven’t thought through what this might entail. Supposing,

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for example, that nobody would want, relative to another. This would mean there would be absolute parity across the board from the indolent labourer to the doctor or surgeon at the top of his profession. Theoretically, it is a thing of beauty that nobody worries about money, where the next meal is coming from and who will look after the invalid. But in reality, money or other means of exchange are the means by which things get done; the only alternative known is the way of nature and the hunter-gatherer, where starvation is always an option.

Where there is differential in income, there will always be poverty. This is because, even if there is a mechanism whereby such a thing is kept at bay, there will always be a tendency to a market. The only way around that is abundance which, even were we able to appropriate all the substance of earth to our various ends, would be impossible without severe population shrinkage.

The area of human rights is perhaps a Pandora’s box out of which only the very foolish dare to extrapolate anything sensible. It’s an emotional lion’s den in which no logical okapi is really safe, especially when it points out that the rights of one often conflict with the rights of others. Whose right, then, is right? If one right has to prevail over that of another, which it must according to market mechanism, then poverty has to lurk somewhere nearby. If person A wants to be a doctor, and persons B to Z also want to be doctors, and there are only 25 places available, then somebody has to lose out – it’s unfortunate, but it’s true. In the animal kingdom, if there are ten hungry lions, and only food for five of them, then either there are ten dissatisfied lions or five fed lions and five claimed by starvation. It’s the way of the world – it may not be palatable, it may not be fair, but it’s like it or lump it.

In conclusion – and answering the question put – were poverty eliminated there would be a lot fewer people all receiving the same allowance. Life would be regulated in all ways, there would be no freedoms to enjoy all the things life can offer in this egalitarian hell.

Poverty, therefore, is the price we pay for freedom.

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