SOC 101 Chapter 10
socioeconomic status (SES)
A broad definition of a person's social class based on components such as education, income, and occupation.
homelessness
An extreme form of poverty defined by lack of permanent shelter to live in.
life chances
An individual's long-term possibilities and potential, including future income and opportunities, given his or her current attributes such as level of education, social networks, and possession of marketable skills or assets. Members of the same class are generally said to have similar life chances.
outsourcing
Common in globalization, outsourcing refers to the contracting of parts of the production process to another party, possibly located abroad. A common example in the United States is of credit-card companies hiring people in India to handle customer service calls.
minimum wage
Established by law, the minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage a worker can be paid.
poverty line
Established by the government, it is the minimum income necessary to afford basic necessities. Anyone below this threshold is considered to be in poverty.
proletariat
Individuals in capitalist economies who work in exchange for pay. The term is usually reserved for people performing manual jobs and is synonymous with "working class."
In what way is the official measurement of poverty in the United States problematic?
It does not adjust for changes in living standards
In what way does a focus on exceptional individuals who rise from difficult circumstances to great success as an adult inaccurately portray the reality of social mobility in America?
It ignores the general patterns of mobility in the society
How was inequality most present in primitive hunting and gathering societies?
Only a very small number of people had more power or goods than everyone else.
working poor
People who do not make enough income to be free from poverty, even if they work full time.
association
The existence of a relationship between two variables. An association exists when a change in one variable is related to a change in another variable. It does not necessarily imply, however, that the change in one variable is the cause of the change in the other. Association can be contrasted with causality.
bourgeoisie
The group in a capitalist economy who own businesses and employ people to work for them. This term is used in the Marxist tradition to refer to the most powerful class in a capitalist society.
globalization
The growing permeability of national borders and the increase in flows of goods, services, and people across national borders.
social mobility
The movement of individuals from one social position into another. Intergenerational social mobility is a measure of the extent to which parents and their children have similar or different social and economic positions in adulthood. Upward mobility is said to occur when an individual's class is higher than that of his or her parents; downward mobility is the opposite.
labor markets
The process through which employers identify and hire individuals to work under specified terms of employment.
income
The receipt of money or goods over a particular accounting period (such as hourly, weekly, monthly, or yearly). Income may include wages from a job, benefits from a pension or government program, or income from investments.
inequality of opportunity
The ways in which inequality shapes the opportunities for children and young adults to maximize their potential.
wealth
The wealth of an individual or family is the net value of all assets owned by an individual or family, including the value of their home.
Which of the following best describes members of the same social class in the sense used by sociologists?
They have similar economic interests, attitudes, and behaviors arising out of their occupation
serf
Under feudalism, a person who is legally obligated to work for the landowner.
Daniel is the CEO of a large financial company based in New York City. He owns an apartment on Park Avenue, one of the most expensive areas in the city to live. Daniel is most lively _____.
a member of the 1 percent
The feminization of poverty draws attention to the difficulty ______.
a single parent faces in both caregiving and breadwinning for a family
median
a statistical tern that refers to the value that lies at the middle (or midpoint) of all the data, with an equal number of cases with either higher or lower values
Which job is most likely to be complemented by technological progress?
an executive-level job
As determined _________ by the government, the minimum income necessary to afford basic necessities is the _________.
annually; poverty line
The assets an individual possesses make up_____________.
his or her wealth
Many scholars believe that one of the best measures of ______ is to calculate_______.
income; the median income
Which of the following best characterizes the relationship between inequality and mobility?
more inequality indicates less mobility
Between 1968 and 2016, the national minimum wage changed from ________ to ________ in real (2016) dollars (adjusted for inflation).
over $10 an hour; $7.25 an hour
Which of the following is a wealth asset?
real estate
A caste society has an extreme amount of __________.
social immobility
Income, education, an occupation are the dimensions of ______.
socioeconomic status (SES)
Which of the following primary sources have researchers used to determine income since 1917?
tax returns
consumption
the act of purchasing and using goods and services
It is well documented that many of the _____ can shield much, if not all, of their earnings from __________.
"1 percent"; taxation
Giving two people earning $10/hour, one person earning $15/hour, and two people earning $20/hour, what is the median pay rate being earned per hour for these five people?
$15/hour
middle class
A group of people who occupy the middle positions in terms of income and status in an economic system.
absolute poverty
A measure of the minimum requirements needed for people to have basic standards of food, clothing, health, and shelter. Any individual or family falling below this fixed amount is defined as living in poverty. The official U.S. government definition of poverty is an absolute measure based on an estimate of minimum living standards first established in the 1960s and adjusted for inflation thereafter.
immobility
A situation in which individuals are unable to move from one economic or social class into another. Usually immobility means that people remain in the same social and economic situation that they are born into (in other words, in the same class or income group as their parents).
feudalism
A social order in which those who own land (landlords) are entitled to receive the products of the laborers (serfs) who are legally obligated to work for the landowner.
slavery
A social system that denies some individuals all basic rights, allowing these individuals to be owned, controlled, and compelled to work for others.
caste society
A society in which a person's social position is determined by the family he or she is born into.
egalitarian
A society, organization, or group characterized by having little or very low levels of inequality.
mean
A statistical term that refers to the average value of a set of data. Add all values and then divide the total by the number of values used.
deindustrialization
A steady decline in industrial or manufacturing jobs.
social stratification
A subfield of sociology that examines inequalities among individuals and groups.
meritocracy
A system where rewards and positions are distributed by ability, not social background or personal connections.
progressive tax system
A tax system in which tax rates are higher on richer people than poorer people, with the idea being that it is fairer to ask those who can afford to pay more to do so. These systems can be based on a progressive income tax and can also differentially assess taxes on wealth transfers, such as inheritances.
relative poverty
A term used to define people as poor not by assessing whether their resources are sufficient to obtain basic social necessities but rather by comparing their incomes relative to other people in society.
sweatshop
A workplace that may be characterized by unsafe conditions, very low wages, and harsh working conditions.
Which of the following is true of a society with perfect social immobility?
All children will end up with the same social class and income as their parents
economic restructuring
Changes in the way the economy, firms, and employment relations are organized.
college wage premium
Related to when people with less than a college degree have seen their earnings decline or have increasing trouble finding good jobs.
Which of the following would be most likely to find themselves homeless at some point in their life in the United States?
Ronnie - a single-man with bipolar disorder and no college education
How can poverty affect the neurobiology of children?
Stressors associated with living in poverty can hinder development.
Adam was born into a poor white family in Chicago. When he grows up he wants to be a doctor. How does the educational system affect the social mobility of a person from a poor family, like Adam, who wishes to become a doctor?
The educational system preserves privileges access for some, making success more difficult for those without economic privilege.
class
The sociological concept that refers to a group of people who share a similar social and economic position in society.
class analysis
The study of society focused on class or changes in the system of class inequality. Emphasis is placed on examining how, when, and where people's actions and beliefs are influenced by their economic position
net financial assets (NFA)
The total value of savings, investments, and other convertible assets a person has, minus any debts, and excluding one's primary home (if it is owned).
inequality
The unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities in society.
Between the 1960s and 2012, the top 1 percent of families in the United States saw their share of all income ______.
approximately triple
The relationship between two variables that change together is called a(n) _______.
association
In recent years, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has estimated that about ______ Americans are homeless at some point during a given year.
between 1.5 and 2 million
In Marxism, the distinction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat was the defining economic relationship in which of the following types of society?
capitalist
Which of the following would be rewarded in a meritocracy?
education
The college wage premium will increase when technology advances ________.
faster than education
Which of the following terms refers to the fact that single-parent families, usually headed by a woman, are more likely to be poor?
feminization of poverty
Sonjia is 17 years old and lives in Mexico. She goes to work every day in a garment factory where she works 10-hour days and earns approximately 60 cents per jour for her work. She gets one 20-minute, unpaid lunch break halfway through her shift and no work-related benefits. Which of the following best characterizes Sonjia's work life?
sweatshop conditions
The BEST way of characterizing what sociologists currently believe about upward social mobility for any individual is that it is the result of ________.
the effort of individuals and a society (and its public policies) that enable it
Who pays the highest tax rate in a properly functioning progressive tax system?
the upper class
How do families with modest incomes most commonly acquire some wealth?
through home ownership
People _____ are most likely to live in poverty in the United States.
under the age of 18
Andy and Isaac were born into the same middle-class family. Andy graduated from high school with average grades and decided two years after graduation to attend a technical school. Along the way he worked in various food-service jobs and at age 25 was working full-time as a short-order cook in a diner earning (with overtime) about $31,000 a year. Isaac graduated he attended a large university, and by age 25 had earned a master's degree and had started working for a start-up in the high-tech field earning $35,000 a year to start. From this scenario, we can confidently predict that these siblings ___________.
will have very different labor market experiences in their future lives
