The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Suburbs Offer No Escape from Poverty

Dec 11, 2006

There are more people living in poverty in the suburbs today than in U.S. cities. While this contradicts the popular image of where most poor people live, it is based on a wide study recently done of U.S. census data. Looking at data for the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, researchers showed that poverty has spread its tentacles far beyond the center cities.

Many workers who fled the cities in the 1970s and ’80s have either lost their jobs, or have children who cannot find jobs with decent pay.

Many immigrants, thinking to escape the cities, went directly to the suburbs–but that didn’t give them higher wages.

Clearly, workers who moved to the suburbs ever since the 1970s in order to escape from the poverty in the cities, have failed to do so.

It’s obvious why: The cities don’t create poverty–capitalism does. And you can’t run away from capitalism. Either you fight it collectively–or you let it abuse you.