SOCY EXAM 2 1 Social class and poverty a US is one of the richest nations in the world b Despite the growth in the 80s and 90s the gap between the richest and the poorest Americans has increased c Wealth i Usually defines as the value of assets owned by a household ii Is more stable within families and across generations than are income occupation or education iii Can be used to secure or produce wealth enhancing ones life iv chances Is more unequally distributed and more concentrated than income v Wealth is measured as 1 Gross assets 2 Net worth d Poor i Absolute versus relative poverty 1 Absolute lack of basic necessities such a as food 2 Relative falling behind the average income and lifestyle enjoyed by the rest of society e Poverty Threshold i Defined as three times the cost of food in the economy food plan the least costly of four nutritionally adequate food plans designed by the department od agriculture 1 The original federal poverty measure developed in 2 Updated each year based on consumer price index 1964 f Poverty guideline i Used to determine eligibility for federal programs such as a head start national school lunch program or the low income energy assistance program g Who are the poor i Racial and ethnic minorities ii Children iii Families with single mothers iv People who live in the certain geographic locations h Functionalist prospective should be equal i Functionalists assume that not everyone in the society can and ii From this prospective inequality is necessary for the social order some people are more important because of their function iii Based on the value of ones work and talent society rewards individuals at the top of the social structure with more wealth and income or power then those at the bottom iv Social institutions especially education sort everyone into v Herbet Gans 1971 argued poverty exists because it is their proper place functional for society 1 Reinforce ideas to work hard 2 Social boundaries haves and have nots 3 Provides a low wage labor pool to do societies dirty 4 Our social welfare system is accused of being work dysfunctional a Concerned with own survival b Poverty creates jobs for non poor c Social welfare will develop programs and structures that will provide for survival i Conflict prospective vi Criticize the functionalist 1 value of your position and what you re paid doesn t make that much sense Athletes are paid more then someone who went to school teachers i Like functionalism also sees inequality as inevitable ii Inequality is systematically created and maintained by those trying to maintain their advantage of over the system iii Advantage based on may characteristics class ethnicity race or age iv Karl Marx production v Max Weber 1 Marx saw ones social class as solely determined by ones position in the economic system 2 You are either a worker or a owner of the means of 1 Weber saw social class as multidimensional and composed of Economic factors income and wealth a Prestige Based on occupation b Power achieving goals over opposition of others vi C Wright Mills 1 Argued the united states is ruled by a power elite a And elite group composed of business political and military leaders b Has absolute power j Feminist Perspective political struggle i Feminist scholars define the welfare state as an arena of ii The drive to maintain the male dominance and the patricarichly family shapes the US iii Mimi Abraovits 1996 notes distinction made between 1 Deserving poor widow 2 Underserving poor divorcee 3 Media politicians have created an image of women specifically of single women abusing welfare Abstinence 4 Marriage hard work honesty out of poverty iv Two types of Welfare programs Fraser 1 Masculine programs a Related to labor market social security and unemployment b Rational generous and nonintrusive 2 Feminine Programs a Related to family or household b Feminine programs are inadequate intrusive and humiliating v Personal Responsibility and work opportunity od reconciliation act PRWORA 1 Feminist scholars criticized PW for failing to address problems vi Interactionists prospective 1 Draws our attention to a How class differences are communicated though symbols b How the meaning of symbols is constructed or constrained by social forces c How these symbols reproduce social inequality 2 Culture of Poverty set of norms values and beliefs that encourage and perpetuate poverty a Poor are socialized differently and pass these on down the family b Poor parent have poor children etc 3 Criticism a There is no evidence that the poor have a different set of values and beliefs b Data shows that most individuals and families live in poverty for less than two years 4 Oscar Lewis Mexican Case studies of poverty what he claims to have found aspiration and sense of poverty perpetuates a He only studied 5 families to make this claim 5 Martin Gilens and public perceptions of welfare a Americans see welfare as a black phenomenon and believe erroneously i Blacks make up 50 when its really 25 ii Blacks are on welfare not because of blocked opportunities but largely because of lack of effort b Welfare has become a code for race vii Note that none of the prospective focus on te individual prospective in determining poverty viii Using our sociological imagination we being to recognizes te social and institutional poverty k Health and Health Care i Limited access to medical care 1 Most working poor are not eligible for government health care program 2 While poor are eligible for medical care under Medicaid limited coverage costs forces most to seek treatment in only medical emergencies l Food insecurity and hunger i When families don t have access to enough the right food 1 Single female households black and Latino have higher food insecurity 2 Poor household usually have higher food prices m Lack of affordable housing i Welfare reform successes are greater among families with assisted housing than among other low income families Sexual Orientation Classification of individuals according to their preferences for emotional sexual relationships and lifestyle with persons of the same sex homo ad persons of the opposite hetero 1 Bisexuality emotional and sexual attractions to persons of either sex 2 Transgendered gender identity is different from one to assigned at birth 3 LBGT lesbian gay transgender etc a gay rights have progressed in the US and globally b National polls indicated the support of gay rights of gays and individuals 4 Research accord