Poverty industry

Poverty industry

The poverty industry refers to a wide-range of money-making activities that attract a large portion of their business from the poor. Many business types are included in the poverty industry such as: payday loan centers, pawnshops, casinos, liquor stores, tobacco stores, and credit card companies. [http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08082008/profile.html] [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_21/b4035001.htm?chan=search] Illegal ventures such as loansharking or drug-dealing might also be included.

While the ethics of such businesses are frequently debated, this is not to say that a particular business does not provide a legitimate service or that all businesses of some type should be considered part of the industry. Some practices are often considered poverty industry symptoms such as secondary mortgage institutions.

The other side of the coin is the legal side, such as policing, court systems, social services, projects, charities and so on. There is little doubt that they benefit financially and create jobs also.

References

Literature

*Edited by Michael Hudson, "Merchants of Misery", Common Courage Press 1993


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