UNAIR NEWS – Who would want to live poor? Of course, none of us wants to live in poverty. There is a thought, if we are lazy to work, life will be more difficult. So how are poverty and laziness related?
From the perspective of Sociology, there are two views regarding the causes of poverty. First, poverty is considered to be sourced from things related to the psychological, cultural characteristics of the individuals. For example, being lazy or not having an entrepreneurial ethos.
Second, poverty arises from structural factors, such as lack of opportunity, fierce competition, or not having business capital.
Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) Sociology expert Prof. Dr. Bagong Suyanto, Drs., M.Si. has given his statements. According to him, being poor and lazy are not related because poverty occurs due to structural factors rather than cultural.
“We are used to judging poor people as lazy or unwilling to work hard. In fact, we see beggars on the roadside, hot, in a clown costume dancing. It is a really tough job,” said the Professor of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) UNAIR on October 21, 2021.
In comparison, said Prof. Bagong, jobs in the informal sector are even more demanding than middle-class jobs. However, due to the inability of education plus the lack of network access, the poor are forced to survive.
Meanwhile, a study conducted in Indonesia in 2019 revealed that children from poor families will remain poor as adults. It, explained Prof. Bagong, shows that the chain of poverty is indeed difficult to break.
“Because poor families don’t have enough economic capital and don’t go to school well, in the end, they’re poor again. Their opportunity to advance to higher class is small because they do not have sufficient social and economic capital,” he explained.
The Dean of FISIP UNAIR also said that apart from unfriendly structural factors, government policies are meritocratic, not protecting the poor.
In contrast to what happened in the City of Bontang, the local government prohibits franchises such as Indomaret and Alfamart from entering. As a result, small businesses from local communities grew.
“The policy of meritocracy is basically that the poor are given assistance; how they survive in the face of a competitive structure is up to the spirit of the poor,” he added.
Prof. Bagong explained that the term poor itself is closely related to stratification (vertical grouping of community members, ed) and class awareness. “Poverty occurs when people are aware of their class. Where is he? This is what makes the issue of poverty associated with the issue of stratification,” he said. (*)
Author: Erika Eight Novanty
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
