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Social Stratification
Society's system of ranking categories of people in a hierarchy.
Social Class
categories of people who have similar access to resources and opportunities.
Wealth
The value of all the economic assets owned by a person orfamily MINUS debt.
Povertyline
An income level set by the U.S. government for the purpose of counting the poor.
Poverty gap
The difference between the actual income of the typical poor household and the official poverty line.
Official Poverty line for one person
10,294
Official poverty line for 2 people
13,167
Official poverty line for 3 people
16,079
Official poverty line for 4 people
20,614
Highestearning 20 percent of U.S. families:
averageincome of $176,000 received 48.1 percent of all income in 2005
Thelowest earning 20 percent of U.S. families
(averageincome of $15,000) received only 4 percent all income in 2005
white families
58percent of white families earn more than $50,000 annually
African American and Hispanic families
36 percent of African American and Hispanic families earn more than $50,000 annually
20percent of U.S. families
ownabout 84 percent of all the privately held wealth in this country
Taxationis a common device used by the government to:
reduceeconomic inequality
Rich
Top ten percent of the income distribution
Poor
Living below the official poverty line
Since1980 income inequality has steadily increased:
huge gains for the top 20 percent, moderate gains for those in the middle and verysmall gains for the lowest paid 20 percent.
Conservative ways to combat inequality:
point out that the poverty in the US is relative poverty and not absolute. Value self-reliance and support the idea that people should take responsibility of their own actions. reject gov programs and make it harder for ppl to be on welfare (drug test, 5 year limit, etc.)
Liberal ways to combat inequalities:
Poverty exists because of the way society operates Increase tax rate for the rich so that there are more fed programs for the poor.
six problems linked to poverty
poor health substandard housing homelessness limited schooling crime & punishment political alienation
The welfare system
TANF (temporary assistance for needy families —SSDI (disabilities)/SSI —Food Stamps —Medicaid/Medicare —Heat and utilityassistance (now defunded) —Food and clothingbanks —Housing subsidies —Public housing Corporate tax breaks
How is extreme wealth maintained?
Tax breaks to corporations Bank bailouts

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