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The article presents the comment of the author on one of his papers related to poverty, minorities, and consumer exploitation. In the summer of 1965, the Watts riot happened. Along with many other residents of Los Angeles, California, the author was unable to get to his place of employment because of roadblocks established by the police and National Guard to contain the destruction. This "vacation" period provided a time for reflection about the nature and problems of the society. One of the easiest observations to be made was that business, ranging from the burned-out mom-and-pop store in Watts to the giant corporation, could not remain aloof from the growing urban crisis. It seemed likely, however, that the commentators and analysts would focus largely on the educational and social roots of the problem and ignore the role of the business community. This oversight would only perpetuate a situation that caused Charles Lazarus, a vice-president of Federated Department Stores, later to ask how it was possible that a whole generation of corporate executives could drive their Cadillacs through the slums of America and not know that someday these ghetto-poor would rise to threaten both the corporate balance sheet and the whole fabric of American life.

The article presents a discussion related to poverty, minorities and consumer exploitation. A number of reports, ranging from informal studies by journalists carefully researched investigations, have provided evidence that residents of ghettos pay more for their consumer goods than do other Americans. For example, social scientist David Caplovitz' study of 464 families living in three New York settlement houses revealed a consistent pattern of high prices, poor quality, high interest charges, and unethical merchandising techniques being inflicted on them. He concluded that the problems of low- income consumers stem from the same set of forces that have created that special system of sales-and-credit-the quasi-traditional economy catering to their wants. In California, the Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles Riots tended to reinforce this view. Following three months of investigation into the causes of the Watts riots, the Commission reported that consumer problems in the curfew area are not due to systematic racial discrimination but rather result from the traditional interplay of economic forces in the market place, aggravated by poverty conditions. These studies suggest, therefore, that the market system works to the disadvantage of the poor simply because they are poor, not because of their race or ethnicity.