Soc. 456The Two Major Causes of the Urban UnderclassToday, in the United States, as well as many other wealthy, industrialized countries, there is an urban underclass, defined as a class of people composed of members of low-income households. income who have little or no income. no participation in the labor market (Gilbert 2003, p. 274). Currently, there are primarily two distinct and conflicting views on why the underclass exists. On the one hand, there is the idea that the underclass is simply the result of its members, who lack values ​​and morals and advocate unemployment (Whitman and Thornton, 1986). Some, on the other hand, believe that social institutions and injustices are to blame for the disadvantaged classes. According to Julia Rothenberg and Andreas Heinz (1998), "current neoconservative discourse on social behavior and the problems of the poor centers around a notion of a morally corrupt underclass. Charles Murray, a conservative and one of the leading proponents of this notion, measures the underclass by factors such as crime, dropouts from the job market among young men, and illegitimate births among young women. He describes members of the underclass as “people living outside the mainstream, often attacking the mainstream, in a world where the building blocks of a life – work, family and community – exist beneath fragmented and corrupted forms” (Murray 1999). . Because this proportionally small group of people remains at a relatively constant and seemingly unambitious income level, Murray blames them for their own problems. Murray's solution for the underclass is simply to lock up criminals; he has no sympathy for them, because he believes that they are in complete control of their own actions (Murray 1999). He argues that the inner-city poor have low-level job opportunities, but turn them down, in part because the busy life of the streets encourages them not to work (Whitman and Thornton, 1986). Among people who take the conservative party, the underclass is seen as the scum of society, a class of people who deserve no help. According to Sonia Martin (2004), conservative and non-conservative observers "frequently view the underclass as homeless, young, black, welfare dependent, drug dependent, intellectually disabled, physically disabled , criminals, single parents (usually women), etc. ...... middle of article ...... some well-paying job opportunities. References Gilbert, D. (2003). The American Class Structure in an Era of Growing Inequality, United States, Wadsworth. Whitman, D. and Thornton, J. (March 17, 1986). A nation apart. US News & World Report. v100.Rothenberg, J. and Heinz, A. (Summer 1998). Dabbling in monkey metaphorsCapitalism and the threat of impulsive desires. Social justice. v25 n2. Murray, C. (November 1999). And now the bad news. Company. v37 i1. Martin, S. (February 2004). Reconceptualizing social exclusion: a critical response to the neoliberal welfare reform agenda and the theses of the underclass. Australian Journal of Social Issues. v39 i1.Sanoff, AP (March 4, 1991). [Interview with Nicholas Lemann, author of The PromisedLand: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America]. US News & World Report. v110 n8.Massey, DS (September 1990). American apartheid: segregation and creation of the underclass. American Journal of Sociology. v96 n2. Pearson, R.W. (June 1991). Social statistics and414.