Dependency Failure

Words: 1432
Pages: 6

Dependency: A Failure for those See It as a Means to an End
The need for human interaction amongst our species has been an important attribute for survival. With communication, came the initial need to rely on someone else besides yourself. No matter the development an individual has gone through, from adolescence to one’s death, dependency on someone or something besides yourself is a reality we all have to face. However, dependency has a misconstrued meaning. Dependency on another is perceived almost as a parasitic relationship and has a negative connotation. Dependency should be defined as the interdependence on someone or something for the sake of assistance but not rather a means to an end for either the dependent or the dependee. The
…show more content…
Many vehicles are used for this type of dependence like basic parental figures in an immediate family, extended family guardians, or even various forms of foster care. While this may be the most common form, there are other forms such as “kin dependency.” It was a method of reliance that would allow for black families in the 1960s who used “extended kin or friends to get by,” which was facilitated by “swapped goods and services on a daily basis,” (Desmond 2017). It showed how interdependence was able to allow for those in poverty “to keep afloat.” (Desmond 161). Unfortunately the rise of the incarceration, drug use and the black middle class had alienated these people from having dependence on another apart from immediate family. Incentives by state government “sought to limit kin dependence, by giving mothers who lived alone or with unrelated roommates a larger stipend,” (Desmond 2017). U.S National Assistance programs like food stamps and Social Security Income “would have strong disincentives for sharing housing,” by reducing “benefits by one-third,” (O’ Flaherty 1992). By reducing welfare for those who used this form of dependency, “the family was no longer a reliable source of support for poor people,” (Desmond 2017.) In order to combat these drug epidemics and reduce incarcerations, our own government pointed the finger on the interdependence of blacks on one another and decided to incentivize the disbanding of them which treated them as a mean to an end. Discouraging dependence, which can help mitigate poverty, actually contributed towards negative externalities.in the black middle class by disincentivizing those to help those who were in a state of poverty. Dependency of the black population is what was to be blamed for the ongoing social issues and was used to institutionalize the alienation of the