Exploitation of Poor People
In America, like many places across the world, poor people are exploited on a daily basis and in various ways. Some poor people are not aware that they are being exploited, and some exploiters are unaware that they are taking advantage of the less fortunate.
For the poor, their lack of knowledge of being exploited, or their desire to get out of their desperate financial situation leads to the abuse or their willingness to cooperate in the exploitation. For the exploiter, many times they claim that they are giving needy people an opportunity to make their situations better, regardless of the fact that the hours, pay, and conditions are not fair or equitable and that the exploiter receives some type of gain.
American labor laws were passed nearly a century ago to protect the interest of workers and children from being exploited. One of the positive results of the labor laws is that there are no longer sweatshops in America; however, it has not protected everyone, as explained in the article, Meet the New American Sweatshop, written by Axel W. Caballero. In this article he argues that the car wash workers are the face of the new American sweatshop, one that operates in plain sight in our communities.
The majority of the car wash workers are paid less than $3 an hour or paid in tips only. Most car wash employees are undocumented immigrants who cannot complain about the conditions of their jobs or risk deportation. Car washes are not the only companies that are at fault, there are a countless variety of companies that hire immigrants and pay them way below minimum wage and forced to work 10 or more hours without breaks.
As for the exploiter, their desire to make money or achieve fame is the ultimate reason why many people take advantage of the disenfranchised. Poor people are an easy prey due to their extreme need, lack of resources and lack of adequate education. Pay day loans, title loans, politics and television shows are just some of the ways poor people are exploited.
Pay day loans allow people with no credit or poor credit history to borrow money with the promise to pay the loan, plus interest by their next payday. The interest rates on these loans may be as high 343 percent. In a recent New York Times article, Making Money off the Poor, the author states that, “Payday loans create a debt treadmill that makes makes struggling families worse off than they were before they received a payday loan.”
When television talk show host, Jerry Springer was asked by a BBC reporter why he exploits poor people on his show, The Jerry Springer Show, he consistently denied exploiting people, stating that he gives people the opportunity to share their story; however, he has been criticized for exploiting low income peoples hardships and personal situations for television ratings while pretending to care for them.
These are just a few examples of the vast amounts of ways the poor are exploited and there does not seem to be any major initiatives to put a stop to exploiting the poor. Some ways that attention can be brought to this issue is to require our politicians to put laws in place to prevent predatory lending, for the general pubic to stop watching shows that exploit the poor, and to increase the public outcry and outrage of the mistreatment of the poor for others financial gain.
Works Cited
Hill, Howard. “Welcome!” The Times and Democrat. N.p., 15 May 2011. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
Caballero, Axel W. “Meet The New American Sweatshop.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 11 Mar. 2014
Edsall, Thomas B. “Is Poverty a Kind of Robbery?” Campaign Stops Is Poverty a Kind of Robbery Comments. N.p., 16 Sept. 2012. Web. 11 Mar. 2014
alwaystired247
AnonymousStudent
azntaco
beforeverge
BigBabyBaller
bitagaming
breakingbad1820
Caravan
cinderella1013
davidbdale
Yankeelover18
fatboy489zt
giantsfan224
glacierfreeze21
gobirds17
green0728
gymrat230
Gir
jerseymikes1106
jesusisking1738
jetsfan806
Kenneth Alex Krug
manipulator66
mercythyhealer14
McCormick Karner
mochaatrain
oni
powerranger
peanut2348
pinkcottoncandy4
princess01430
redbird1123
rubes1256
shxrkbait
sillyinternetperson
soulpond47240
spatel8267
stingingcrib5
tacotyphoon
thepersonindisguise
usmnt23
worldofjuice999
xephos1
Counterintuitive Fall 2022 
“Exploitation is defined on Dictionary.com as the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work. There are people that are being exploited for daily. Exploitation is something that in America it is sweep under the rug. Most of the time exploitation in America looks more like an opportunity than unfair treatment. The poor and undeserved are easily exploited because as said by Howard Hill in the article Exploitation of the Poor and Undeserved exploited people usually cooperate.”
Promised with a way of fixing their lives by voting for someone saying they’ll help, the poor are met with disappointment and left without an escape from their awful lifestyle.
Ryan, you rightly focus your (and our) attention on the plight of the exploited poor rather than on the dictionary meaning of the term. Your own sentence is too spongy to steal directly, but its message is the right one. —DSH
Unfortunately in America, people look at exploitation as an opportunity for the exploiter, rather than unfair treatment. Exploitation is usually laid on the poor and undeserved, as they are the people most likely to cooperate.
This is a big improvement, Taylor. I wouldn’t read one word past “Exploitation is defined on Dictionary.com” myself. Troi, I trust that in the past two days you’ve had an epiphany about how and when to start making meaningful claims in your essay. Taylor doesn’t make a new claim for you, but she grabs the attention your thesis deserves right out of the gate. What dictionary.com has to say on the matter is entirely irrelevant. We don’t care what the dictionary says about exploitation; we do care that people in our backyard (ourselves maybe too) are being exploited. The fear that we might be cooperating in our own exploitation is very real. Tap that fear. —DSH
While you don’t say so, Troi, you identify three very different types of exploitation in your essay. The poor in your piece are exploited by capital that abuses their talents and labor for unfair wages; they’re exploited by news media to provide sexy copy about the underprivileged for “there but for the grace of God go I” stories that don’t benefit them; they’re exploited by politicians making big promises they have no intention of fulfilling in return for their votes.
You don’t have to number these types (I hope you don’t), but you could personalize them and offer them to readers as a narrative of hopelessness: they can’t find jobs except from exploitative employers; they can’t get help from the public who are not motivated to improve their lot even when they’re told about it; they get no help from government, which accepts their presence but won’t advocate for them and pays them attention only when it arrests or deports them; they can’t get help from politicians for whom they’re only pawns in a political dialog about immigration policy or welfare costs the two parties use to beat each other up at the polls. See what I mean? Add up all the ways the poor are exploited (in slightly different flavors depending on the advantage gained from them) and their situation is both rich and definitive.
Also, get rid of sentences like this one that make me wonder how carefully you’re reading your own work: Exploitation is something that in America it is sweep under the rug. That sentence alone would sink a portfolio.
Grade recorded. Always improvable with revisions.
Regraded for Portfolio