Mark Robert Rank's, "Why American Poverty Affects Us All" Chapter 3, Entry 1

One of Rank's contentions in Chapter 3 pertain to two levels of understanding poverty, identifying "who is more likely to experience poverty by understanding the impact that human capital has on individual economic vulnerability" and "we can ascertain why poverty occurs in the first place by looking at the structural failings" (Why American Poverty Affects Us All, pg. 75). He believes that we can understand poverty through choosing to analyze those in underprivileged situations or analyzing the cycle of poverty itself. Rank supports his belief by applying the idea of musical chairs as an example of the structure of poverty. For instance, as music starts to play 8 people begin to circle around 10 chairs, and as the music stops we can either focus on the people who fail to find a chair or focus on the game itself. If we center our attention on the players "we will find that some combination of luck and skill will be involved...the loser will be those in an unfavorable position when the music stops"(Why American Poverty Affects Us All, pg. 75). Rank believes that focusing on the players themselves means that those who lose are persons lacking the expertise and education to adequately compete against those who have acquired the knowledge for success.  Concentrating on the game itself, you will find that regardless of proficiency and agility two players are intended to lose. Rank argues that this analogy can be used to understand what is occurring in America today, “…economically, socially, and politically” (Why American Poverty Affects Us All, pg. 75).  Unemployment can be interpreted as a shortage of jobs, mass production of low-paying and non-beneficial jobs, a rise in communities affected by the economic reformation, lack of adequate help for the needy and those unable to contribute to the economy due to illness, and insufficient childcare. Rank is also certain that if we focus on the game itself, the main reason that people are poor in this country is that “the economy produces unemployment, creates low paying jobs, bypasses low income communities, offers few social supports and protection, and does not provide for those who can no longer participate economically due to illness” (Why American Poverty Affects Us All, pg. 76).