Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Chapter 2: Inequality: Poverty and Wealth

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. What’s the difference?  Stratification  Income  Wealth

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Defining Economic Inequality  Social Stratification – To rank individuals based on objective criteria, often wealth, power, and/or prestige – Naturally creates inequality  Income – Refers to the money received for work or through investments  Wealth – Refers to all material possessions including income

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Defining Economic Inequality  Income Distribution – About 60 percent of Americans receive less than 27 percent of the nation’s income –The wealthiest fifth of the population receive nearly 50 percent of the money –How is this a problem?

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Defining Economic Inequality  Wealth – Includes income and assets  In the U.S. the top 1 percent of wealth holders in the United States has more total wealth than the bottom 90% combined – Do you think this is okay if these people worked hard to make this money?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Question  What’s the difference between: – Power and prestige

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Defining Economic Inequality  Power – The ability to get people to do what you want without having to make them do so – Persuasive power –Means that you use direct or indirect methods to get what you want  Prestige – Refers to the level of esteem associated with our status and social standing

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What social class are you?  Elite  Upper middle  Middle class  Working class  Lower class  Underclass

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. How Does Inequality Affect the Lives of People?  Upper or Elite Class 1-2% – Very small in number and holds significant wealth (3 million Americans)  Upper Middle Class 15% – Consists of high-income members of society who are well educated but do not belong to elite membership of the super wealthy (income >100,000)

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. How Does Inequality Affect the Lives of People?  Middle Class 34% – Have moderate incomes – Varies from low-paid white-collar workers to well-paid blue-collar workers – (teachers, policemen, skilled laborers)

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Defining Economic Inequality  Working Class 30 % – Makes up about 30 percent of population and comprises people who completed high school and lower levels of education – (hourly waged, manual labor)

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Defining Economic Inequality  Lower Class – The ones who truly feel the effects of poverty – Often live paycheck to paycheck, if they are employed at all – More than two-thirds of African Americans and 60 percent of Hispanics in the nation live near or below the poverty line –(37 million Americans, paycheck to paycheck if employed at all)

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Defining Economic Inequality  The Urban Underclass – The homeless and the chronically unemployed – Often live in substandard housing in neighborhoods with poor schools, high crime, and heavy drug use – Rarely have health care coverage and often lack a high school education –How do people become apart of this social class?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Why the urban underclass? – Sociologist William J. Wilson –Both their lack of vision and lack of role models are what make it difficult for many to imagine any other way of life

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Social Class as it relates to:  Neighborhood  Health  Family  Education – How are the above correlated with one’s social class?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Neighborhood  How would one’s neighborhood affect their position in life?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Effects of Social Class  Neighborhoods – People’s behavior is influenced by quality of the neighborhoods they live in – Over time, poor people tend to settle in areas already populated by their own class –How does growing up in a wealthy/poor neighborhood affect your life chances?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Neighborhood – Growing up in a wealthy neighborhood –Children from these areas do better in school, have lower risk of teen pregnancies, and have higher standardized test scores – Disadvantaged communities –Lower birth weights, poorer health, and lower levels of education

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Social class and health  Do poor people have poor health and why?  What is the link between poverty and access to food?  Diseases?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Effects of Social Class  Health – Poor women with children, who frequently have insufficient diets, suffer higher rates of mental depression and worse physical health than wealthier counterparts –Access to food influences both physical and mental health.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Social class and health – Health and socioeconomic status (SES) have been found to be linked –Those with greater SES tend to enjoy better health, whereas those with a lower SES tend to have poorer health – An individual’s health influences his social stratification across a lifetime

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Social class and Family  How does family structure affect poverty rates?  What does family composition affect children living in poverty?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Effects of Social Class  Family – U.S. Census Bureau found correlations between family form and poverty rates –Female-headed households have poverty rates nearly three times higher than national rate for all families –Female poverty rates also higher than rates for households headed by single men

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Social class and education  How is educational attainment affected by one’s social class?  Do different social classes have access to the same levels of education?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Effects of Social Class  Education – In the U.S., free 12-year education is available to every child regardless of family or class – Not all educational opportunities are the same – Jonathan Kozol –Schools in urban communities frequently lack basic educational supplies –Suburban schools often have a surplus of supplies and staff –WHY?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Social class and education –Dramatic differences lay in structure of system –Places with higher property taxes receive more educational funding –Poor urban areas need more help but actually get less

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Mobility  What does the term ‘mobility’ mean?  How easy is it to attain mobility?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. The Effects of Social Class  Social Mobility – Term that describes ability to change social classes – Horizontal Mobility –Refers to moving within same status category – Intragenerational Mobility –Occurs when individual changes social standing, especially in the workforce – Intergenerational Mobility –Refers to change family members make from one social class to next through generations

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Who are the poorest?  Which age group do you think is the poorest and why?

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How Does the United States Define Poverty?  Transitional Poverty – Temporary state that occurs when someone goes without a job for a short period of time  Marginal Poverty – Occurs when person lacks stable employment  Residual Poverty – This type is chronic and multigenerational  Relative Poverty – State that occurs when we compare our financial standing and material possessions to those around us

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Functionalism  Functionalists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore – Every system tends toward equilibrium, so inequality in the U.S. is inevitable – even essential – for society to function smoothly  Society has various positions that need to be filled – The more important the position is, the rarer the skill or the longer the training period required for it

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Functionalism  Occupations that are greatly rewarded in our society are the ones that require the most skills  Idea suggests that the U.S. is a meritocracy  Meritocracy Argument – States that those who get ahead in society do so based on their own merit –Agree?

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Conflict Theory  Conflict theorists generally follow the ideas of Karl Marx – Stratification occurs because the proletariat (workers) are exploited by the bourgeoisie (owners)  Sociologist Melvin Tumin – Few things affect a person as much as social class – Suggests that we reward certain occupations because we’re forced to

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Symbolic Interactionism  Interactionists often look at the meaning behind social problems  William Ryan – Suggests that when people look at inequality, they tend to view those at the bottom as creators or co-creators of their problem –Blaming the Victim –Involves blaming those who suffer from a social problem for that problem – Believes that such a process ignores the structural problems of the society

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Symbolic Interactionism  Sociologist William J. Wilson (2009) – Suggests that the mentality of blaming the victim prevents us from actually seeing social structural problems that lead to inequality

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