Exam 1 Sociology 102
Median Wage
$28,000, $52,000 for famiy
Poverty Threshold
Based on cost of the cheapest nutritional food plan developed by the USDA. Updated every year by the US Census Bureau.
In 1979
The top 20% for blacks was equal for whites (1979)
Unequal cohesion
No communication between classes.
Democracy versus Autocracy
One person, one vote/ Ruling elite
What The Rich Won't Tell You
People feel indifferent about their wealth, some comfortable talking about it some not, changing penthouse adress, hiding the label off the bread
Relative Poverty
Person fails to achieve income necessary to enjoy the lifestyle lived by the rest of society
Absolute Poverty
Person lacks food, shelter, clothing, and income
Bridgeport
Poor School
Competitive Consumption
Prove your in a higher class
Race and Wealth (2016)
Race gap in wealth has increased Whites have 5 times more wealth than Hispanics, 7 times more wealth than blacks
How to Hide 400 Million
- crimes in multiple states, off shore companies, tax evasion, maze of shell companies, 21$ trillion **white collar crime**
How many men and women are succumbed to domestic violence
-10 million men and women, 1 in 3 women
Uniontown
-13,800$ is their family income -88% black -Radicals want epa rules --> prompt innovation
Global Gender Gap Index
-70% of women earn than men - 217 years until the gender gap closes
Urban institute
-Average wealth has increased over the past 50 years, but it has not grown equally for all groups. -Rising wealth inequality relates to income inequality -Racial and ethnic gap widens -Racial wealth gap with age, difference in earning, federal policies fail to help!
Paid sick days bottom versus top
-Bottom : 24% -Top: 75%
Conservatives want
-Education that trains worker -Tax reform that increases job worth/business profits -Welfare programs that incentivize work
Crossett, Arkansas
-Koch Industries -> 115$ billion a year, purchasing chemical/subsidiary companies -releasing of benzyne and 60 other chemicals into water stream
5 costs of inequality
-Liberal why inequality is bad (5 costs) 1) undemocratic 2_ socially divisive- realities are similar 3) Bad for eocnomy 4) Bad for environment 5) Creates social problems
Hunting Ground
-More than 16% of girls are sexually assaulted - 88% do not report -45% of colleges reported zero sexual assaults -2-8% of reports are false
Strategies for Addressing Poverty Among Women
-eliminate gender wage inequality -post secondary training/job education -Work-Family Policies -Safeguarding and strengthening social security/safety net programs
Patrick Garry Reading
-inequality is a symptom (trickle down) -competition is good -lower/middle class are restricted from
Joan Acker Reading
-radical, intersectionality (race, class inequality, gender) -Regimes @ home and work
Arkansas Crossett
-the pollution-spewing smokestacks of Georgia-Pacific have turned their quaint town into a waking nightmare. -Koch Industries -> 115$ billion a year, purchasing chemical/subsidiary companies -releasing of benzyne and 60 other chemicals into water stream
Bottlenecks of Integration/ why?
1) Blue collar jobs (construction) dominated by men 2) Men not going into pink collar jobs (nursing) 1) Men are too prideful 2) Jobs too demanding 3) Jobs pay less for men 4) Blue collar pays better
The One Percent- Lisa Keister 3 points
1) Homophily 2) as inequality worsens, some still benefit from it 3)Evidence of mobility
Herbert Gans Reading- 11 costs
1) adds to social viability 2) dirty work 3) low jobs 4) poor creates jobs 5) lack of resourcs 6) poor allows middle class to live 7) poor involved in the arts 8) Poverty gives perspective 9) poor allows for social mobility 10) Poor people observe cost of growth 11) Poor people make it unattractive to be lazy
Environmental inequality is measured by
1) unequal political power 2) unequal consumption 3) Unequal cohesion and cooperation
How to respond to inequality
1. Federal Transfers 2. Taxes
Types of Policies
1. Flat Tax: Sales Tax, Constant, everyone gets taxed the same. 2. Progressive Tax: Income tax, more money you make the higher percentage you pay on tax. 3. Regressive Tax: More money you make, smaller percentage you pay on tax.
10 Reasons Why Women Make Less than Men
1. Women work fewer hours than men (married women), sex segregation is in workforce 2. Women work in different jobs than men 3, Women get a smaller return on investments in education 4. Women do more unpaid work 5. Rise in single parenting (blacks/hispanics) 6. Little Support by the State 7. Little Support by Employees 8. Women have less power- U.S. ranks 71st for women representations 9. Discrimination in Hiring and Pay -Women doctors earn average 46,000 less a year
Educational Attainment
1971-2013: education increased, college doubled -2013: Women get more degrees than men -Education differs by race, 2013 --> increase in bachelor's degree
Split in Income Distribution
1979
Paula England Reading- Bottlenecks
2 bottlenecks 1. Blue collar jobs 2. Men aren't entering pink collar jobs -jobs are too demanding -men are too prideful - jobs pay less for men - blue collar pays better
2005: Inequality in America's Educational System
2005: Connecticut coalition for Justice in Education Funding --> Did not pass
In the U.S.
400 people have more wealth that us
What is the % of consumer spending?
70%
Gini Coefficient
A measure of income inequality within a population, ranging from zero for complete equality, to one if one person has all the income.
Blacks/Whites pollution
Blacks in neighborhoods with $50-60 K have more pollution than whites in neighborhoods below $10 K.
Paid vacation (bottom/top)
Bottom: 27% paid vacation Top: 76% paid vacation
Conservative response to environmental inequality
Care about the free market, don't want regulations. Boycott! Want capital accumulation
AFTC
Cash aid to families who are impoverished
Axes of Inequality
Class, Race, and Gender
Communism
Competes with socialism
Downey/Hawkins
Declining significance of race, interaction effect
Voucher
Do not pay property tax, conservatives like this. Radical's dont like this.
Great Prosperity
Economy boom, higher education was a priority, G.I. bill
Headstart/ Conservative liberal radical response to education inequality
Enriched pre schools, liberals created. Conservatives don't like this. -Radicals want inverted school funding -"Too little Too Late" --> Poorly funded school programs (Headstart)
Have/Have Nots
Environmental racism: Blacks, hispanics poorly exposed to enivornmental hazards.
Public schools are funded by
Federal, State, local government
Poverty
Fell in 60's, war on poverty
What increases with age
Gender Gap
Horizontal versus Vertical Segregation
Horizontal Segregation: men and women separated into different types of jobs- men work in manual labor, women work in service Vertical Segregation: Women work lower paying, lower prestige jobs (such as a secretary) while men work higher paying and prestigious jobs (such as CEO)
Race is a factor of
Income, Wealth, Poverty -Hispanics: 70% of Whites -Blacks 60% of whites -Asians 52% of whites
Income versus Wealth
Income: Through jobs/assets (stocks, bonds) Wealth: Stocks, bonds, assets, inheritance, property
Inequality Regimes- Rules, Norms, Expectations
Instersectionality: Gender/race/class/inequality @work: Policies shape every decision @home: Gendered division of labor persistent -Those with power and resources use, when you fix one problem another slides into place -Solutions: Affirmative Action, Title IX (gender equality law)
trickle down economy
Invest in top 1% and trickle down to everyone else
Clark article
Nitrogen dioxide --> 38% higher for non whites -Reducing nonwhites to white levels lower heart disease mortality by 7,000 deaths per year- equal to 6 million
Feminist Perspective
Male dominance is the driving force shaping US welfare
U.S. (bottom versus top)
More unequal than brother/sister countries, U.S. bottom 50 --> 12.6% Top 1 % --> 20.2%
Food Deserts
No access to food
Rising economic equality equals
Rising environmental inequality
Robert Reich- "Inequality for All"
Secretary of Labor, Clinton, film about widening income inequality, top 1% take in more than 20% of all income, 400 richest Americans own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans.
Epistemology
Study of Origins of Knowledge, Patricia Hill everything created by men
How to make a flat tax regressive?
Take a higher share of low incomes than high incomes
TANF
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. A 1996 national act that abolished the longtime welfare policy, AFDC (Aid for Families with Dependent Children) TANF gives the states much more control over welfare policy
Stone Reading
The years from the end of World War II into the 1970s were ones of substantial economic growth and broadly shared prosperity. Incomes grew rapidly and at roughly the same rate up and down the income ladder, roughly doubling in inflation-adjusted terms between the late 1940s and early 1970s. The income gap between those high up the income ladder and those on the middle and lower rungs — while substantial — did not change much during this period. Beginning in the 1970s, economic growth slowed and the income gap widened. Income growth for households in the middle and lower parts of the distribution slowed sharply, while incomes at the top continued to grow strongly. The concentration of income at the very top of the distribution rose to levels last seen more than 80 years ago (during the "Roaring Twenties"). Wealth — the value of a household's property and financial assets, minus the value of its debts — is much more highly concentrated than income. The best survey data show that the share of wealth held by the top 1 percent rose from just under 30 percent in 1989 to nearly 39 percent in 2016, while the share held by the bottom 90 percent fell from just over 33 percent to less than 23 percent over the same period.
Title 7/Title 9
Title 7: Banned sexual harassment and discrimination based on gender from the workplace Title 9: Banned gender discrimination in educational activities
1970's/1980's
Trickle down economics, globalizaition, technology, deunization, deregulation
Social Stratification
Universal characteristic of social life, ranks individual into social strata.
Liberal response to environmental inequality
Want EPA to set reasonable limits
Radical response to environmental inequality
Want the cost of disposal to be part of the cost of production. Want people who caused damage to fix it.
Sara and Christine Perecheski Reading
We argue that family structure has become an important mechanism for the reproduction of class, race, and gender inequalities. -1960s has icnreased
Is wealth or income more unequal?
Wealth
Kochar and Fry
Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession -The current gap between blacks and whites has reached its highest point since 1989 -not all households have benefited alike, and wealth inequality has widened along racial and ethnic lines. -White households are much more likely than minority households to own stocks directly or indirectly through retirement accounts.
"The secession of the successful"
Wealthier people pull away and build their own schools, pools, communities
Whats the problem?
Wealthy aren't putting enough money into the economy
Female Earnings as % of male earnings reveal
White women have incentive to marry
Downey and Hawkins
environment concerns connected with race and inequality
Interactionism
focuses on micro-level understanding and meanings of social relationships and interactions
How inequality is good- 4 causes
fuels competition, foster creativity, luxury into common goods, production rises