Who Is To Blame

Everyone exploits something about themselves from time to time to get what they want. In America, like many places across the world, people are exploited on a daily basis and in various ways. The truth is, everyone has exploited themselves or been exploited, even if it was for a small gain. There is a website that is dedicated to self-exploitation, SeekingArragement.com, which pairs older, wealthy men and young women—or “sugar babies”—for “mutually beneficial relationships.” This is the perfect example of how some women exploit themselves by using their youthfulness and beauty to receive money from older men who desire companionship.

The desire for people to make money or achieve prestige or fame is the ultimate reason why many people exploit themselves or others. In politics, self-exploitation is a necessity. Politicians exploit themselves based on what will appeal to people to gain votes. During the 2008 Presidential election, the democratic primary candidate, Hilary Clinton cried while in Portsmouth, New Hampshire after she was asked, “How did you get out the door every day as a woman?”  Clinton became teary eyed and shared that it is hard some days and that her desire to be president is not all political. Her comments could have been completely sincere or it could have been a perfectly devised plan to convince undecided voters that she is not as tough as her critics perceive her to be. Hilary Clinton exploited the fact that she is a woman by attempting to relate to other women who are working mothers.

Some political figures exploit their families as much as they exploit themselves. During the same presidential election, Vice President Candidate Sarah Palin spoke of her family often. No one was questioning whether she loves her family; however, the amount of times she referenced her family made it hard for the public to look at her without thinking of her being a wife and mother. During the election, she spoke frequently about her youngest son having Down Syndrome, and her teenage daughter being pregnant. At almost every interview she would speak about her children as her way to display the normalcy of her family. Sarah Palin exploited her family to receive compassion votes from American voters who could relate to the love of family.

Many times poor people are the victim of exploiters. They are easy prey for exploiters due to their lack of knowledge of being exploited, their extreme financial need, or feeling powerless to stop the exploitation. For example, despite the long hours, low pay, and poor conditions at their place of employment, many times poor people will accept these conditions because they are grateful for the opportunity their exploiter has provided. Poor people’s desire to get out of their desperate financial situation, lack of resources, and lack of adequate education, influence their decision to accept and remain in unfair and unequitable positions. Although some measures have been taken to protect people from being exploited, there are always people looking to make money off of someone’s misfortune.

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 allowed 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 job conditions 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 force them to work 10 or more hours without breaks.

Another ways people with financial struggles are exploited are through pay day loans. Pay day loans allow people with no credit history or poor credit history to borrow money with the promise to pay back 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 struggling families worse off than they were before they received a payday loan.” The government has been working on strategies to protect victims from these predatory lenders, but many would say that more needs to be done.

Politicians are always looking for a platform of issues upon which the candidates will run. If a candidate would exhibit an ounce more interest in the conditions of the poor, such as supporting a bill to punish predatory lenders, they would be guaranteed votes from the low income population.  Studies show that the poor class is likely to vote less than any other class; however, there are valid reasons why.  According to the U.S. census, 47 percent of eligible adults with a family income of less than $20,000 a year voted in 2012, and just one in four voted in the midterm election of 2010; whereas families that earned more than $100,000 had between a 60% and 80% voter turnout rate. I believe this is reflective of the amount of trust both classes have in their politicians to advocate on their behalf.  Lane Kenworthy, professor of social and political science at the University of Arizona, tells CNNMoney, “People with more income are more likely to feel they have more at stake in terms of taxes, public services and various benefits,” whereas, “People with lower incomes are more likely to feel disillusioned, because they tend to feel like policy never changes.”  Although politicians discuss the issues of the poor when campaigning, it is typically not to their advantage.

In politics the topic of public assistance is very popular; however, the focus is usually on how people take advantage of the system instead of initiatives to assist people needing it. It is true that people make false claims, lie, and steal from our government; however, they are from all races, classes and backgrounds.  Many times it is thought that African Americans dominate the use of federal services, when in fact, Caucasians are 1.0% behind African Americans when receiving government assistance. The idea that African American citizens are the primary benefactors of public assistance, and take advantage of the system has a long history. Little has been done to publicly correct this false perception and some perpetuate this misinformation.

Republican presidential candidate, Ronald Reagan told a story of the “Welfare Queen,” during his speech, stating, “There’s a woman in Chicago; she has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards.  She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000.” When reporters searched for this particular woman, they could not find any such person; the welfare queen was a mythical tale that projected the image of low income African Americans as the poster child of welfare. Many people defended Ronald Regan because he never mentioned the race of the woman in his speech;however, to many people it was implied.  John Hinshaw, a history professor at Lebanon Valley College stated, “The Welfare Queen driving a pink Cadillac to cash her welfare checks at the liquor store, fits a narrative that many White, working-class Americans had about inner-city blacks.” Hinshaw continued to say, “It doesn’t matter if thestory was fabricated, it fit the narrative, and so it felt true, and it didn’t need to be verified.”  In this instance, President Ronald Reagan exploited poor African Americans through his speech which propelled stereotypes and assumptions that helped him gain votes from people with similar views.

Many lower class people are working hard and would like to get out of public housing and off of public assistance; however, until opportunities are provided to help them and low paying jobs meet the cost of inflation it will likely never happen. With the limited amount of programs and opportunities available for the lower class, some believe they have no choice but to allow themselves to be exploited. This decision to be exploited is most of the time the only choice they have to try to progress.

These are just a few examples of the vast amount of ways people exploit themselves or others.  Exploitation appears to be a part of society which affects the rich and the poor. It is unfortunate that there does not seem to be any major initiatives to end the system of exploiting others; however, there are ways that attention can be brought to some of the issues.

In conclusion, many people from all walks of life are will be exploited or will exploit others to obtain something they desire. Several tactics can occur to help end exploitation such as concerned citizens can pressure politicians to put laws in place to prevent many forms of exploitation of the poor, the general public can show their support by not watching shows that exploit people, the exploited can strike and show outrage of the mistreatment of the less fortunate for others financial gain, and the public can stop patronizing companies that take advantage of their workers. The likelihood of any of these suggestions making a big impact on the challenges of exploitation is slim. So the question remains, who is to blame?

Works Cited

Blake, John. “Return of the ‘Welfare Queen’” CNN. Cable News Network, 23 Jan. 2012.                   Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

Breslau, Karen. “Hillary Clinton’s Emotional Moment.” N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

Caballero, Axel W. “Meet The New American Sweatshop.” The Huffington Post.            TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 11 Mar. 2014

Censky, A. (2012, September 24). Why the rich vote more. CNNMoney. Retrieved May 8, 2014, from http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/24/news/economy/rich-vote-more/

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

Edsall, Thomas B. “Is Poverty a Kind of Robbery?” Campaign Stops Is Poverty a Kind of Robbery Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. “Voting and Registration.” In the

Election of November 2012. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. Weeks, Daniel. “Why Are the Poor and Minorities Less Likely to Vote?” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 10 Jan. 2014. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.

Hill, Howard. “Welcome!” The Times and Democrat. N.p., 15 May 2011. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

 “Welfare Statistics.” Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

Williams, Patricia J. “The Complicated Politics of Self-Exploitation | The Nation.” The                            Complicated Politics of Self-Exploitation | The Nation. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr.                      2014.