Chapter 2 Poverty and Wealth

Chapter 2Poverty and Wealth

Economic Inequality in the United States • Social stratification: • the system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy • Stratification produces social classes • categories of people who have similar access to resources and opportunities

Economic Inequality in the United States • Any discussion of problems such as poverty must include a discussion of income and wealth • Taxation is a common device used by the government to reduce economic inequality

The Rich and the Poor: A Social Profile • “The rich”: those families who fall within the top 10 percent of income distribution. • The “poverty line”: the level of annual income below which a person or family is defined as poor and thus entitled to government assistance • The “poverty gap”: the difference between the official poverty line and the actual income of the typical poor household

The Extent of Poverty • Profile of the U.S. poor • Age: at greatest risk are children • Race: African Americans and Hispanics • Gender: women • Family Patterns: single mothers • Region: the South and the West

Social Problems Linked to Poverty • Poor health • The link between poverty and health is evident from birth to old age • The infant mortality among the poor is twice the national average and among the poorest, four times the national • Death comes earlier to the poor, who are more likely to die from infectious diseases and violence at any age

Social Problems Linked to Poverty • Substandard housing • About 500,000 people are homeless in the U.S. on a given night • Up to 2 million people are homeless at some point during the year • Low income coupled with a decrease in available low-income housing leads to homelessness

Social Problems Linked to Poverty • Limited schooling • Poor children are less likely than rich children to complete high school • fewer poor children enter college and have less of a chance of completing an advanced degree • Uncertain work and the working poor

Social Problems Linked to Poverty • Crime and Punishment • Due to the focus on street crime, the poor are more likely to face arrest, trial, conviction, and prison • The poor depend more on public defenders and court-appointed attorneys, most of whom are underpaid and overworked

Responding to Poverty: The Welfare System • Social welfare program:an organized effort by government, private organizations, or individuals to assist needy people defined as worthy of assistance

Responding to Poverty: The Welfare System • Large government-run welfare programs have three characteristics: • they direct money to specific categories of people; • they benefit many people (e.g., the elderly, veterans, students, and farmers); and • they do not significantly change income inequality

Social welfare has a long and controversial history in the United States • The colonial era (the 1600s and 1700s); • The earlier industrial era (the 19th century – when attitudes toward the poor became more negative); • The twentieth century (with its soaring immigration and the 1929 great depression, and Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal.”)

Welfare Today • Changes in the welfare system began to occur when President Clinton pledged in 1992 to “end welfare as we know it.” • The result was the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 • The public remains divided over whether people deserve help

Welfare Reform Act of 1996 • Replaced federal AFDC program with a new state related program – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). • New rules require able-bodied people receiving benefits to find a job or enroll for job retraining within two years.

Welfare Reform Act of 1996 • States can set their own qualifications benefits, but must limit assistance to two consecutive years with a lifetime cap of five years. • The program directs all states to move half of single parents receiving welfare into jobs or retraining by 2002.

Structural functional analysis: Some poverty is inevitable • Social pathology theories: focus on personal deficiency • Social disorganization theory: too much change • Contemporary functional theory: inequality is useful • Davis and Moore – inequality actually helps society function efficiently • Herbert Gans – poverty exists because many people benefit from it

Symbolic Interaction Analysis: Who’s to Blame? • Explores the meanings that people attach to those who are poor • Criticism: although this approach points to society as the cause of poverty, it says little about how society makes some people poor

Symbolic Interaction Analysis: Who’s to Blame? • Based on research by William Ryan- • Pick a social problem • Decide how people who suffer from the problem differ from everyone else • Define these differences as the cause of the problem • Respond to the problem by trying to change the victims, not the larger society

Social-Conflict Analysis: Poverty Can Be Eliminated • Marxist Theory: Poverty and Capitalism • Poverty Involves More than Money: Cultural Capital • Multicultural Theory: Poverty, Race, and Ethnicity • Feminist Theory: Poverty and Patriarchy

Politics and Poverty: Constructing Problems and Defining Solutions • Conservatives: Personal Responsibility • focus on personal responsibility, stressing the importance of self-reliance • Liberals: Societal Responsibility • view poverty as more structural than it is individual; thus they look for societal solutions

Politics and Poverty: Constructing Problems and Defining Solutions • Radicals: Change the System • poverty is inherent in capitalist society, • they dismiss social welfare programs and tax plans advocated by liberals as little more than a Band-Aid applied to the body of a person with an incurable disease

Chapter 2 Poverty and Wealth