Sociology 125 Midterm 2
Solutions to poverty and inequality
"Middle out" (as opposed to "trickle down")economics, inclusive growth, high-road -Partially decouple living standards from market earnings by increasing (a) wage regulation or subsidies or (b) the social wage and public goods: e.g., health care, transit, day care, education and recreation -Partially decouple paid employment from capitalist market: e.g., public sector or "social sector" jobs -Partially decouple income from earnings by encouraging savings, redistributing assets, or guaranteeing a basic income
Racial classification
- Typically racism involves linking evaluative judgments to these classifications - superior/inferior, worthy/unworthy, dangerous/not dangerous, honest/dishonest
13th amendment
- neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction -overturned Dred Scott, granting citizenship -Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857)- Blacks, whether enslaved or free, are not American citizens and therefore have no standing to sue in federal court; and the federal government has no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United State
Child poverty
- the state of children living in poverty
Worker preferences for shmoos
-1. everyone gets the shmoos -2. only workers get the shmoos -3. only capitalists get the shmoods -4. destroy the shmoos
Capitalist preferences for shmoos
-1. only capitalist get shmoos -2. destroy the shmoos -3. everyone gets the shmoos -4. only workers get the shmoos
Civil War Amendments
-13th amendment -14th amendment -15th amendment
Slaughter-house cases
-14th Amendment protects the "privileges or immunities" conferred by virtue of the federal United States citizenship to all individuals of all states within it (e.g., travel between states) but not those privileges or immunities incident to citizenship of a state -upheld white supremacies
Affirmative action
-Any policy that takes into account membership in some historically discriminated group (e.g., race or gender) to increase the likelihood of a person from that group getting a job, being admitted to a university, or otherwise winning some social competition
Welfare facts and trends
-Families receiving welfare benefits have drastically decreased to around 2 million, while families with children in poverty has continued to increase to around 7.25 million -Percentage of families with children receiving AFDC/TANF has decreased from 85% in 1978 to 27% in 2010 (AFDC and TANF provides benefits to low income families with children)
Henry George
-Geogrism: natural resources benefits should be given to all people equally
Justice as fairness
-John Rawls -citizens are free and equal and society should be fair
Reforms to reduce inequality
-Raise wage standards or wage subsidies:minimum wage, EITC, etc. -Strengthen worker organizations:worker organizations ("unions") reduce wage inequality and change political environment for things like the minimum wage and redistributive social programs -Increase the "social wage" and quality public goods:universal health care, good public day care, paid parental leave, mass transit, etc. All these loosen the connection between standards of living and market wages -Strengthen cities: cities per se aren't good for inequality, but they're great for the public goods that relieve it (via their money, density, organization) -Encourage savings:various plans to encourage savings - e.g., programs to match individual savings with government subsidies (Individual Development Accounts), VRA (voluntary retirement accounts) -Widen ownership:stock issuances into a common pool, "clamshell socialism," ownership society, "stakeholder capitalism," ESOPs -Guarantee a basic income (BIG ... "basic income guarantee"): paid through general revenue or "monetizing the commons"
Brown v. Board of Education
-Supreme Court decision that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional
Facts and trends about poverty and inequality in America
-United States has the highest rate of poverty among all the developed capitalist economies -Poverty rate that is 3-4 times greater than in many European countries -Our after tax child poverty rate is 23.1% only dropping 2%, while other countries usually drops well under 10% -There is a strong correlation between child poverty rate and mortality rate -Child poverty rate slightly more than 20% for children 6 and slightly less for children 18 and under -Poverty rate for adults 65+ has steadily decreased, while 18-64 has remained consistent for most part, but slightly increased recently to around 13% -The percentage of poor in extreme poverty has increased 30% from the 1975, and today it is around 40-45% -The South has usually been the most impoverished area, but recently the regions have become closer, ranging 13-16% -Nonmetropolitan areas traditionally had the highest poverty rates, but now it is central cities -Blacks currently have around a 28% poverty rate, Hispanics around 25%, and whites around 10% -Ratio of black to white poverty rates have slightly decreased, and currently is around 2.7
Plessy vs. Ferguson
-Upheld Jim Crow state laws requiring racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of "separate but equal"
Sex
-a biological distinction based on roles in the process of biological reproduction
Social reproduction
-a concept originally proposed by Karl Marx in Das Kapital, and is a variety of his broader idea of reproduction -"refers to the emphasis on the structures and activities that transmit social inequality from one generation to the next"
Discrimination
-a form of racism in which persons are accorded full citizenship rights, but in various ways face systematic private discrimination in different context
Winner-take-all markets
-a market in which the best performers are able to capture a very large share of the rewards, and the remaining competitors are left with very little
Jim Crow Laws
-a number of laws requiring racial segregation in the United States. These laws were enforced in different states between 1876 and 1965
Neo-traditional family models
-a permanent bond with an intimate partner in which one specializes in breadwinning and the other in caretaking (even if both hold paid jobs)
Citizen dividend
-a proposed policy based upon the principle that the natural world is the common property of all persons
Feminism
-a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve political, economic, personal, and social equality of sexes
Racism
-a set of beliefs and social practices in which people are treated differently and accorded advantages and disadvantages on the basis of culturally-defined racial classification
Gender
-a social distinction between roles and expectation linked to sex
Patriarchy
-a social system in which males hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property
Concentrated poverty
-a spatial density of socio-economic deprivation. In the US, it is commonly used in fields of policy and scholarship in reference to areas of "extreme" or "high-poverty" defined by the US census as areas with "40 percent of the tract population living below the federal poverty threshold."
Race
-a symbolic category, based on phenotype or ancestry and constructed according to specific social and historical contexts, that is commonly misrecognized as a natural one
Semi-free labor
-a system for including non-citizens in a labor market without giving them the rights and protections of citizenship -the hiring of illegal immigrants
Second-class citizenship
-a system of giving different categories of people different citizenship rights on the basis of some attributes -Jim Crow laws is an example
Slavery
-a system of social relations in which one person is the private property of another and can be bought and sold on a market
Genocide
-a systematic policy to exterminate a particular category of persons, because of their race, religion, ethnicity or some other characteristic -the treatment of Native Americans is an example of genocide
Family wage
-a wage that is sufficient to raise a family. This contrasts with a living wage, which is generally taken to mean a wage sufficient for a single individual to live on, but not necessarily sufficient to also support a family
Peer production
-a way of producing goods and services that relies on self-organizing communities of individuals. In such communities, the labor of a large number of people is coordinated towards a shared outcome -example: Wikipedia
Racial profiling
-act of suspecting or targeting a person of a certain race based on a stereotype about their race, rather than on individual suspicion
Basic Income Guarantees/Grants (BIG) or Universal Basic Income (UBI)
-all citizens are given a monthly income sufficient to live at a no-frills level above the poverty line. Everyone receives the basic income—it is universal, it is given unconditionally, and it entails no work requirements or other conditions -basic right
14th amendment
-all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws
Capacities approach to equal opportunity
-also known as real approach to equal opportunity -people may be for equal opportunity, but they won't take the steps to reach that equality -leveling the playing field to help reach equal opportunity -affirmative action
Statistical discrimination
-an economic theory of racial or gender inequality based on stereotypes. According to this theory, inequality may exist and persist between demographic groups even when economic agents (consumers, workers, employers, etc.) are rational and non-prejudiced
Welfare policies
-any government subsidy to a particular group of people to provide them certain kinds of material advantages that they would otherwise not have if things were left to the market -two main forms are directed targeted government spending, and tax subsidies
Trickle-down economics
-argues for income and capital gains tax breaks or other financial benefits to large businesses, investors and entrepreneurs in order to stimulate economic growth
Sexual harassment
-bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In most modern legal contexts, sexual harassment is illegal
Domination vs. exploitation
-class as involving the ways in which economic positions give people control over lives and activities of others -extreme forms of opportunity hoarding -excluding resources from people to the point of forcing them to work for you -excluding resources would be domination -forcing them to do something for you after that is exploitation
Class as independent variable
-class causes income and wealth
Individual attributes
-class with attributes and material conditions of life of individuals -"work ethic" -luck -education
United States vs. Cruikshank
-congress can't criminalize private violence; the 14th Amendment "adds nothing to the rights of one citizen as against another"
Class as dependent variable
-education, race, and gender can all sort people into class
Microaggressions
-everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership
Tax expenditures
-government spending through the tax code
Pragmatic equality for equality
-high Inequality ->resentment and conflict ->erodes cooperation and community ->lowers productivity ->reduces prosperity -high inequality ->concentrations of wealth ->concentrations of power ->erodes democracy ->capacity to make important collective investments needed for productivity (e.g., infrastructure, education, basic research) -high inequality eventually (aka, "in the long run") harms almost everyone, even the relatively affluent
Gender wage gap
-idea that there is a wage gap between two genders -men make more money on the dollar than women
Tax universalism
-in order to combine best features of means-tested and universal programs, we could tax away all benefits from wealthy, some from middle class, and a little from lower -creates stronger political base -seeing less of a benefit depending on social class
"Ought implies can"
-in order to say you ought to do something, it must also mean that you have the means in order to do it, otherwise it's pointless to say you ought to do it
Blame the victim approach to poverty
-in the end, people are responsible for their own fate. The existence of lots of families whose members have the same background conditions, some of whom do well while others fail, gives plausibility to this view -people coming from same social background may be rich and other poor, therefore, blame individuals because there must be something wrong with them
Pragmatic argument for inequality
-inequality->incentives ->people work harder ->prosperity, which ultimately benefits the poor -greater inequality ->greater incentives->greater prosperity, which yields even greater benefits for the poor -conversely, reducing inequality ->reduces incentives ->less work effort ->less prosperity, which ultimately harms the poor -poor may be made worse off by redistributing wealth or income to them; less incentive to work hard and improve life
Fair play
-is a moral judgment about procedures, not outcomes/initial conditions -on this view, "fairness" means "equal playing field"-no discrimination, no special privileges, etc. -generally directed toward the future, not wrongs of the past - under a "fair play" view of inequality, high inequality in outcomes/initial conditions is fair so long as it's the result of ordinary competition with procedural"equal opportunity
Egalitarian family models
-lasting bond with intimate partner, search for personal balance between work and family, egalitarian sharing of earning and caring
Racial inequality facts and trends
-lynchings of blacks per year increased rapidly from 50 in 1882 to 160 in 1894, then gradually decreased down to 0 in 1956 -executions of blacks for rape increased from 5 in 1930 to nearly 25 in 1938, then gradually decreased to around 3 in 1964 -executions of whites for rape has always remained anywhere from 0-4 from 1930-1964 -50-85% of blacks from 1986-2010 have believed that black disadvantages are due to discrimination, while only 30-40% of whites have, and it is gradually decreasing -whites who have completed high school has constantly increased from around 40% in 1957 , to where stays around 88%, while blacks have drastically increased from 20% in 1957 to around 85% now -whites who have graduated from college has gradually increased from 10% in 1957 to around 30%, while blacks have increased from around 3% in 1957 to over 20% -trends of blacks representation in desirable occupations increased pretty steadily from 1950-1990, but now has remained about constant -tend of women representation in desirable occupations increased greatly from 1950-2012, however professional and technical positions have began to decline -black median family income as a percentage of white median family income has remained pretty constant anywhere from 50-63% from 1947-2007 -Black child poverty rate has remained around 20-30% higher on average than white child poverty rate -blacks with no criminal record have been found to be still slightly less employed for unskilled job as whites with a record (this is based off a study)
Same-sex marriage
-marriage between people of the same sex
Electoral tradeoffs with racial inequality
-maximize elected black officials by concentrating black voters in electoral districts so that they'll have a majority; if you do this, fewer elected officials will support racial justice policies -maximize politicians who support racial justice policies whether they are black or white by having black voters spread out across more districts so they can influence more elections; fewer black politicians would get elected
Living wage
-minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs
Fair share
-moral judgment about outcomes/initial conditions, not just procedures -"fairness" means everyone is entitled to a share of society's resources sufficient to live a dignified, flourishing life (i.e. to have enough to be able to be active in the society and able to exercise and develop one's talents
Blame the society approach to society
-most of the poor are no different than other people. They've just been born into a more limited feasible set for improvement. And while it's certainly, generally, possible, at least at the margin (and often well beyond) for people to rise above the circumstances of their birth, few do without a lot of serendipitous or intentional help from outside their immediate family. Macroeconomic policy, provision of social services and other public goods, essential to realizing equal opportunity -the rich believe they can get away with more
Reconstruction
-movement toward granting African-Americans more equal rights -Civil Rights Act of 1866: guaranteeing blacks "the same right in every state and territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, sell and convey real and personal property; and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property as is enjoyed by white citizens -Civil Rights Acts of 1870-1871: - made it a crime for state officials or private citizens to suppress, intimidate new voters, or wrongfully refuse them a ballot -Civil Rights Act of 1875: banned segregation in public accommodations, transportation, and entertainment functions (majorities in both House and Senate supported a statutory nationwide ban on school segregation -13th, 14th, and 15th amendment
Work-family conflict
-occurs when there are incompatible demands between the work and family roles of an individual that makes participation in both roles more difficult
Paid parental leave
-parental leave can be used at the birth of a child or to tend for a sick family member -could have impact on the gender division of labor -US is the only highly-developed country that does not require any form of paid parental leave
New birth of freedom
-post-civil war world in reference to reconstruction
Predistribution vs. redistribution
-predistribution: giving more power prior to fiscal year -proving help before issue becomes apparent
Opportunity hoarding
-process of social exclusion that produces status differentiation -for a job to give its occupants high income and special advantages, it is important that the incumbents of those jobs have various means of excluding people from access to the jobs. -also referred to as social closure -credentialing and licensing are important mechanisms
Means-tested programs
-programs that provide benefits only to poor and lower-income persons -examples: Medicare, food-stamps, public housing, etc.
Conditional welfare
-puts a type condition on your receival of welfare -you may have had to look for so many amounts of jobs before receiving the welfare
Glass ceiling
-refer to the barriers that are imposed on women and minorities, preventing them from reaching equal opportunity
Missing women
-refers primarily to developing country -the women who are not here because of inequality and lack of resources -fewer women out there than we expect based off birth rates, so it seems to be the result of inequality
Extreme poverty
-refers to those who live below the poverty line
Relative vs. absolute poverty
-relative poverty is the condition in which people lack the minimum amount of income needed in order to maintain the average standard of living in the society in which they live -absolute poverty refers to a condition where a person does not have the minimum amount of income needed to meet the minimum requirements for one or more basic living needs over an extended period of time
Self-reliant family models
-self-reliance whether single, cohabiting, or married, and a belief that it's important not to rely on a partner for breadwinning or caretaking even if in a long-term relation
Cultural sexism
-sexism as a cultural force also contributed to stabilizing female domesticity. The aphorism that "a woman's place is in the home" was backed by a wide range of beliefs about women and their competences: women are naturally nurturant and gentle, best suited for the role of mothers and homemakers; they lack men's competitive drive and resilience, which are needed for successful careers; men need a supportive wife to take care of them and stand behind them; and so on
Sexual assault
-sexual touching that occurs without consent of victim -penetration of the victim's body, also known as rape -attempted rape or forcing the victim to perform sexual acts, such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator's body -fondling or unwanted sexual touching -summer has the highest rate of sexual assault
Economic marginalization
-situation, through one mechanism or another, someone is unable to get access to necessary means to acquire a basic livelihood -occurs because of mismatch between distribution of skills in population and distribution of jobs in the economy
Positional vs. status inequality
-status inequality is something you can't change about yourself, that allows you to have control over another person; race, gender, age, etc. -positional gives you the ability to control another person; example: a sergeant controlling another person
"War on Drugs"
-targeting of minority communities for drug-related arrests -a centerpiece of the get-tough-on-crime policies championed by conservative political forces beginning in the 1970s and gaining ascendancy in the 1980s. -blacks were targeted with crack cocaine offenses
Bottom billion
-the bottom billion people that live in extreme poverty
Appropriation principle
-the causal mechanism which translates inequality exclusion principle into inverse interdependent welfare principle involves the advantaged group's control of the labor effort and associated wealth generated by the disadvantaged group -exploitation
Inequality exclusion principle
-the causal relation in the inverse interdependent welfare principle involves the exclusion of the disadvantaged group from access to certain important productive resources controlled by the advantaged group -both oppression and exploitation
Culture of poverty
-the deficit within poor people is identified as psychological dispositions closely connected to culture
Occupational sex segregation
-the dominance of a sex in a specific occupation -example: the domination of women in preschool and kindergarten education
White flight
-the idea that when minorities begin to move into predominantly white areas, white people will flee that area at a rapid rate -do it to conserve their property value
Second-shift
-the idea that women work a "second-shift" when they come home, in form of taking care of work around the house
Reparations
-the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged
Inverse interdependent welfare principle
-the material well-being of the advantaged group of people causally depends upon and is inversely related to the material deprivations of the disadvantage -both oppression and exploitation
Redlining
-the practice of denying services, either directly or through selectively raising prices, to residents of certain areas based on the racial or ethnic composition of those areas.
15th amendment
-the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude
Social wage
-the right to enough income for living as determined by the basis of citizenship rather than employment. Key components of the implementation of a social wage would be Universal health care and a Basic income guarantee (BIG)
Institutional discrimination
-the unjust and discriminatory mistreatment of an individual or group of individuals by society and its institutions as a whole, through unequal selection or bias, intentional or unintentional; as opposed to individuals making a conscious choice to discriminate
Comparable worth
-two jobs with equivalent levels of skills and responsibilities should be paid the same
Wealth inequality vs. income inequality
-wealth inequality: inequality in labor markets -income inequality: extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner amongst the population
Gender inequality facts and trends
-women with children participation in labor force has greatly increased, as well as their participation in traditionally male professions -median hourly income has slightly increased, but is still around .77 -number of women not marrying continues to rapidly increase
