Class norms can render poverty invisible by forbidding both asking and offering help

Evidence

In the upper classes, the tragic situation frequently occurs in which the needy person would willingly accept assistance and he who is in a well-to-do position would also willingly grant it; but neither can the former ask for it nor the latter offer it. In the higher classes the economic a priori, below which poverty begins, is set in such a way that this poverty very rarely occurs and is even excluded in principle. The acceptance of assistance thus excludes the assisted person from the premises of his status and provides visible proof that the poor person is formally déclassé. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 444

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to how Lofland’s civil inattention lets society ignore strangers — here class decorum suppresses recognition of need. Both are socially engineered blindness. — connects to: Poverty is defined by social reaction, not by material deficiency — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 444; People from impoverished conditions do not always recognize their poverty. — Crews, Harry, A childhood the biography of a place, 21; A person can be socially poor yet individually wealthy — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 439 (+3 more)
• FICTION: The mutual silence between the needy and the well-to-do — neither can ask nor offer — is a ready dramatic engine for a story of unspoken class dying.

Related

• Poverty is defined by social reaction, not by material deficiency (similarity 0.82)
• Sociological poverty is defined by receiving assistance, not lacking means (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• People from impoverished conditions do not always recognize their poverty. #expands (0.60) — Crews, Harry, A childhood the biography of a place, 21
• Sociability’s democratic reciprocity fails across different social classes #expands (0.60) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 377
• A person can be socially poor yet individually wealthy #corroborates (0.55) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 439