InQuizitive: Chapter 10. Poverty SYG2000

Using the information in the figure, place the states in order from highest to lowest cost of living.

1. Hawaii 2. California 3. Washington 4. Florida 5. Texas 6.Mississippi

Three different hypotheses have been advanced about the relationship between family poverty and children's development. Match each label to the corresponding hypothesis.

1. Material deprivation: Growing up in dirty, polluted environments makes children more likely to develop asthma and other health issues. 2. No effect: The same personality traits that make one successful in the labor market also make one successful as a parent. 3. Parental stress: Parents who work long hours at low-wage jobs may be less patient and nurturing in their child-raising habits.

Sociological theories about the culture of poverty and the underclass have profoundly shaped American views of poverty, and poverty research as well. Place the publications in order from earliest to most recent.

1. Oscar Lewis writes "The Culture of Poverty," where he argues that poor people adopt practices that prevent them from getting ahead. 2. Edward Banfield writes The Unheavenly City, arguing that the poor were trapped in a cycle of poverty because they were not future-oriented. 3. Ken Auletta writes, in The New Yorker, that the "underclass" are increasingly deviant and dangerous. 4. Charles Murray writes Losing Ground, in which he argues that the behavior of the poor is a rational response to social welfare programs.

According to the "Seeking SWF" Policy feature, trying to solve____by creating____is a misguided effort, because_____are unlikely to stay in the United States. Instead, many policy experts are trying to think of ways to protect individuals from the ups and downs of______.

1. POVERTY 2. JOBS 3. manufacturing jobs 4. the labor market

In this video, sociologist Mario Luis Small explains to Dalton Conley how the rejection of Oscar Lewis's culture of poverty thesis went too far. Small starts by describing Lewis's views. Identify the virtues Lewis says are often undervalued in the culture of low-income neighborhoods.

-Undervalued Virtues -sexual restraint -hard work -punctuality

Expanding on the_____theory, journalist Ken Auletta introduced the concept of_____which posited that poor people were different from the mainstream due to their poverty, and were also increasingly socially_____.

-culture of poverty -the underclass -deviant

The Move to Opportunity (MTO) study of the 1990s was the converse of the negative income tax of the 1960s and 1970s. The MTO study changed families'_____but not their____, whereas the negative income tax experiments did the reverse. Together, the results of these studies suggest that____based on economic circumstance is a bigger source of social problems than_____itself.

-locations -income -social division -income inequality

In this video, sociologist Matthew Desmond describes the consequences for a family being evicted from rental housing (3:50-6:00). Identify the consequences Desmond mentions.

1. job loss 2. greater difficulty finding a new place to live 3. loss of eligibility for Section 8 assistance

Identify the following as either absolute or relative poverty measures.

Absolute -being unable to afford food and housing -being unable to afford day care and transportation to and from work

Identify the factors that contributed to the rise in the eviction rate of low-income families, according to sociologist Matthew Desmond's study starting in the mid-1990s.

CONTRIBUTING FACTORS -stagnating incomes, -rising rents, -reduced government rental assistance

Identify the factors that contribute to the "Aspen effect."

Contributing Factor(s) -high levels of wealth inequality -high housing prices -economic segregation

In 1963, Mollie Orshansky tried to define poverty in terms of income relative to the cost of food. This calculation eventually became the basis for the official poverty line in the United States.Identify the initial criticisms of Orshansky's definition of poverty.

Criticism(s): -The multiplier used to extrapolate from food costs to the total cost of living is too low. -The multiplier used to extrapolate from food costs to the total cost of living is too high. -The calculation should focus on the cost of housing instead of the cost of food.

As part of his research, Dalton Conley interviewed a man named Marlin. Identify the factors in Marlin's life that contributed to his five-year prison sentence for burglary.

Factor(s) -Marlin spent time in a special education program. -Marlin could not sit still and focus in school. -Marlin's mother was an alcoholic. -Marlin stole to support a drug habit.

Identify the factors that might prevent poor people from getting welfare benefits for themselves or their families.

Factor(s): -a lack of childcare -being employed -having a disability

Identify the parts of the sociological definition of poverty.

Part(s) of Definition: -caused by economiccircumstances -involves material deprivation -prevents people from living with dignity

The "culture of poverty," as Oscar Lewis describes it, may be thought of as a rational response to financial difficulty. If the response is rational, identify the problems with it.

Problem(s) -The culture of poverty persists even after external structural factors have changed. -What is rational and beneficial in the short term can hold a person back in the long run.

In the United States today, the official federal definition of poverty is based on a 1960s-era definition in which a family's income is compared to the cost of food and other core necessities, such as housing.Identify the problems with this definition.

Problem(s): -What counts as a necessity cannot be defined once and for all. -The same necessities can have very different costs from one part of the country to another. -Defining poverty solely in terms of income ignores the role of wealth.

Identify some of the shortcomings of the welfare bureaucracy in the United States today.

Shortcoming(s) -Offices for certain programs are inconveniently located and have limited open hours. -By imposing time-consuming participation requirements, welfare makes job hunting harder.

Identify the true and false statements about universal basic income.

True: - would be available to everyone in a society - would address the loss of jobs to automation and globalization

With children, there is an apparent strong correlation between low family income and poor performance in school. How did Susan Mayer's research undermine the hypothesis that low income causes poor school performance?

\Mayer found that parents' income when their child was in their twenties seemed to matter almost as much as parental income when that child was an adolescent.