A life-long Marxist says irresponsible behavior is a major cause of poverty

See Oscar Lewis, Personal Responsibility, and Poverty: The Marxist anthropologist's findings were credible precisely because his findings clashed with his ideology and loyalties, but others didn't see it that way by Bryan Caplan. Excerpts:

"In the 50s and 60s, Oscar Lewis could easily have been the world’s most famous anthropologist. He wrote a whole series of painstaking ethnographies of poor families from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and India. My 12th-grade AP Government class actually made his Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty required reading. Only recently, though, have I realized that these books aren’t just fascinating in their own right; they’re also illuminating at the meta level.

Here’s how.

1. Lewis, an avowed Marxist, spends his career closely studying poor families. The resulting empirics are beyond bleak: Lewis describes social worlds full of impulsive sex, poor work habits, substance abuse, violence, and cruelty to children in appalling detail.

2. A few non-leftists notice that, despite his Marxist interpretation of his own findings (capitalism has to be the root cause, right?), Lewis basically confirms their “reactionary” view that poverty is largely caused by irresponsible behavior of the poor themselves. After all, impulsive sex, poor work habits, substance abuse, violence, and cruelty to children are very bad ways to make extra money or stretch tight family budgets. Any sensible low-income person would avoid them like the plague.

3. Leftists hear what these “reactionaries” are saying—and lash out at Lewis for “blaming the victim.”

4. Other leftists push back, insisting that Lewis was a Marxist in good standing, full of sympathy for the poor, and therefore definitely not guilty of “blaming the victim.”

Before you dismiss this as a caricature, read Harvey and Reed’s “The Culture of Poverty: An Ideological Analysis” (Sociological Perspectives, 1996), which provides a well-written window into the whole Lewis affair."

"By normal standards, of course, this grossly undermines any favorable thing Lewis has to say about the poor. If you’re a Marxist who idolizes the working class, unions, and “the downtrodden,” we should expect you to “find” that the poor are blameless victims of a wicked society.

Lewis’ research is credible precisely because his findings clash with his ideology and loyalties. And that’s why his left-wing critics are strategically wise to condemn him. When non-leftists say that irresponsible behavior is a major cause of poverty, you can plausibly object, “Sure, that’s what reactionaries like you find.” But when a life-long Marxist says the same, logic tells you to change your mind. Or kill the messenger."