Bewildering the Tramp: How modern legislation criminalizes poverty

reply to post by RedBird


We are definitely not a classless society, and I experience it every day. It feels weird to complain about it from the side that gets preferential treatment, but having the "right" clothes, tastes, appearance, etc. gets you much farther than just having the money. If you are wearing a suit and sleeping in public not even a cop will second guess your claim that you have somewhere to stay whether you do or not. Unfair and unfounded judgement calls run rampant in our society.

At the same time, from the perspective of the people who make these decision it can be difficult to weed through people any other way. At the hotel I work at I am told to use my "judgement" (aka information the can be gathered from a person's outward appearance) in decided whom I should and should not rent rooms to. Does she look like a prostitute? Does he look like a drug dealer? What does a "bad" person look like?

In the end, I think it points to one of the major flaws in human thinking, which is "I can tell a bad person just by looking at them." Of course, this is not true and has never been true. But it offers us the ability to interact without fear, and to not interact without guilt. I think the root of this behavior can be found in animal nature and human evolution. Not all snakes are poisonous and not all homeless people are dangerous scourges, but it's best to get rid of all of them just in case. At least that's how our brains interpret it.