Business as Usual

How The Other Half Lives 24, 25:

Something that I noticed while reading these chapters was Riis' focus on business and capitalism to fix the problem of the poor in the tenements. He states that the Law acts out of a "desire to educate rather than force the community into a better way". His critique is that the government is acting too slowly in their intervention. The US government at this time like many other nations, was following the notion of laissez-faire capitalism, which, as the French means, a hands off approach to most things, including business and social-economical trends in the population.

Though this may seem the argument of a socialist, Riis takes a different turn, "The business of housing the poor, if it is to amount to anything, must be business, as it was business with our fathers to put them where they are. As charity, pastime, or fad, it will miserably fail, always and everywhere". Though we consider Riis and his fellow muck-rakers as progressives, he is actually following again with the prescribed traditions of his time.

He obviously wants the poor to be helped, but he understands their problem in a capitalist mindset. Riis cannot go beyond the bonds of the system, whether or not he can mentally ascertain a different system or that he is just following standards to connect more easily to his audience. He's writing to a middle class audience, many of whom buy into the system to make money, and cannot turn them away with a new idea that would destroy their social class and position.

So is Riis doing this intentionally? Or is he simply the result of the system in which he exists?