Ninth, the poor also aid the upward mobility of groups just above them in the class hierarchy. Thus
a goodly number of Americans have entered the middle class through the profits earned from the
provision of goods and services in the slums, including illegal or nonrespectable ones that upperclass
and upper-middle-class businessmen shun because of their low prestige. As a result,
members of almost every immigrant group have financed their upward mobility by providing slum
housing, entertainment, gambling, narcotics, etc., to later arrivals - most recently to Blacks and
Puerto Ricans.
Tenth, the poor help to keep the aristocracy busy, thus justifying its continued existence. "Society"
uses the poor as clients of settlement houses and beneficiaries of charity affairs; indeed, the
aristocracy must have the poor to demonstrate its superiority over other elites who devote
themselves to earning money.