Arguelles1

Joaquin Arguelles

Idea college prep

11/10/11

Period 6

                              SLUMS

 Day to day we see slums almost everywhere. We can say that some parts in the valley, when it becomes more urban, may one day have largely over populated places. This is called a slum, which is a place that is a densely populated area characterized by a generally low standard of living, and they may sometimes be called shantytowns, barrios, ghettos, or favelas. Slums are part of our community because the help shape and change our society culturally, geographically, and socially. That is why it is important that we learn and know about what a slum is, and what it does to us.

There are many slums across the country, and they are all populated with different culturally, different people. We can say if a certain culture predominates that certain slum, then we can say that the majority of the people will have values, or similar background. Sometimes the names of these slums have cultural meanings. Let’s say that a slum is Mexican oriented, and then we can say that they may be called barrios.

They may also impact the population geographically. In may impact it in a ways that a certain place becomes extremely over populated, and therefore affects the amount of resources that this area may get. This limits the resources for every family in these certain areas.  Therefore, we need to have in mind that sometime some people may not be able to get the same type of life style simply because of where they live and the limitation they have.

It also impacts our society because it becomes part of a social system. Socially we have the rich, the middle class, the working class, the poor, and those in poverty. So, who would fall within those living in slums? Generally people who live in slums live very poorly because they have very few chances of being successful because of their limited resources. This causes social classes, and sometimes people are very unfair because they see those who are considered working class and poor inferior to them.

We have to learn about these to know what else is out there for us to be knowledgeable about other things such as slum. It helps us know that slums are part of our community because the help shape and change our society culturally, geographically, and socially. There are many things that we can do for people in slums, and the first step is to learn and know about them.