Ending The Poverty Blues

One of the most important claims that the friends of the blue social model make is that it addresses the needs of the poor and the weak better than any other existing social system. This is a serious point that blue critics sometimes don’t think enough about, but the claim is more questionable than blues admit — and more to the point, from where we are today, the basic methods of the old social model aren’t likely to make things much better.

Social conditions in early 20th century America were genuinely appalling. A lack of basic public health in some places meant unnecessary deaths from infectious disease; child labor in factories and mines was still widespread. Industrial workers faced killing hours in dangerous and polluted factories. Poorly packaged and preserved food was sold without any kind of check. Most kids got at most an eighth grade education; old people who could no longer work were often left destitute. Those who were crippled or disabled often were left to their own resources. Given the widespread discrimination against women, families whose fathers were no longer present were often in terrible want. Poor people did not get fat from bad nutrition in those days; they grew gaunt from hunger.

Racial conditions were barbaric; brutal lynchings were commonplace in parts of the South. Interracial marriage was banned by law in many states, race discrimination was enforced by law, and courts routinely sentenced African-American defendants to hard labor on minimal grounds. Read more..........