Chapter 10,11,13 Soc

U.S. government measures absolute poverty

Attempts to define minimum amount of income needed for basic needs Does not adjust for changes in living standard

Wealth gaps

Racial gap in household wealth central to current patterns of racial inequality

Association

Relationship between two variables that change together United States, Italy, and France have strong associations and low social mobility Denmark, Norway, and Finland have weaker associations and thus more social mobility Data is less available in developing nations, but evidence suggests developing have strong associations and low social mobility, similar to the US.

Inequality

The unequal distribution of valued goods & opportunities - a feature in virtually all known human societies

Feudalism

a social order based on agriculture in which those who own land (landlords) are entitled to receive the products of the laborers or serfs, who are legally obligated to work for the landlord, but not otherwise enslaved.

social stratification

a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy, unequal distribution of valued goods and services and is a basic feature of society. Every human society, except perhaps for hunter-gatherers are stratified to some degree

Ethnicity

a system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent based on perceived cultural similarities

Race

a system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent based on perceived innate physical similarities.

Max Weber

One of first sociologists to define ethnicity and race

Homelessness

One of the most extreme consequences of poverty Literally, the lack of a permanent shelter to live in Grew in the 1980s after the closing down of mental health centers u2010: HUD estimated about 1.6 million homeless in previous year

¨Americans use racist or racism to describe long list of things:

People can be viewed as racist because of things they say or do Can also see ideas, speeches, sermons, movies, songs, books, policies, laws, and even political parties as racist

Ethnic Groups

People who are believed to have a shared descent

Race

People with common inherited and inheritable traits that derive from common descent

Race concept

People's beliefs about race, including their notions of which groups are races and who belongs to which race

Income gaps

Persistent gaps in family income between white and nonwhite households for last 40

Who are the poor

Proportion of poor people declined over the 1960s but has not improved significantly since then

¨Race

Race categories have a stronger impact on people's lives Racial categories are imposed on individuals by others Idea of racial hierarchies promoted by European explorers Racial categories are more regulated

Constructivist view

Racial categories are social creations, not biological facts

Poverty and Children

21 percent of American children under age 18 live in poverty, a rate higher than the overall poverty rate Poor children experience negative impacts Lack of basic nutrients, shelter, immunization, and access to healthcare Hunger and homelessness Exposure to environmental toxins Neighborhood violence Anxiety about making ends meet Difficulties in accessing institutional services Stressors can have neurobiological impacts,

Poverty

Condition involving inability to afford basic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, and healthcare

Two views of race

Constructivist view, Essentialist view

Deindustrialization

Decline in industrial or manufacturing jobs Percentage of manufacturing jobs has declined from 40 percent to 20 percent Increase in low-wage service occupations

uMany European governments measure relative poverty

Defined as those families with incomes below 50 percent of the median income Attempt to capture changes in living standards

Linked to decline of social programs to the poor

Destruction of low-cost housing in urban areas Rise in unemployment Most common among single men Some 1.5 million children experience homelessness in the United States at some point in a given year

Basic needs LIFE AT THE BOTTOM

Difficult to define beyond minimum needed to ensure subsistence Social factors can shape what other factors are considered basic needs Example: Transportation and communication technologies may be necessary to find and maintain a job or go to school

Education and Social Mobility

Education challenges traditional forms of allocating privileged positions in society

Essentialist view

Enduring differences between races are rooted in biological sources and do not change from one generation to the next

Ethnicity

Ethnic categories have less impact on economic outcomes Ethnic categories are self- or group-designated Idea of hierarchies not used with ethnicity in the contemporary era Ethnic terms are generally not regulated

Factors that influence social mobility

Families Education Labor markets Government policies Factors Overlap and impact one another Are highly correlated with level of inequality children face when they are growing up

Economic restructuring: Changes in how economy, firms, and employment relations are organized

Fewer long-term, stable well-paying jobs Increase in reduced benefits and part-time employment Goal is to increase corporate profitability

Growth of Inequality

Inequality began to grow and the establishment of slavery was an important landmark. Egypt, Athens, Greece

Globalization

Involves growing permeability of national borders and increase in flows of goods across nations' borders Important aspect: Increasing trade between countries, resulting in cheaper imported goods from these countries Companies outsource or relocate manufacturing jobs to other countries for lower costs, due to sweatshop labor, low wages, and low safety standards

Who controls most wealth

Just over half of all the wealth in the world is controlled by the top 1 % of the world's population. The bottom 50% of the world's population has the same total wealth as approximately the 62 richest people in the world, and, as of 2015, the world's richest 1% now own more than the bottom 99% combined.

Risk factors for poverty

Less education Employment in low-wage jobs or jobless Working poor: Those with jobs that don't pay enough to lift them out of poverty Being a member of a minority Being a single parent; women are more likely to be poor then me

Lowest Inequality

Lowest levels of inequality occurred between 1940s and 1970s

Poverty Line

Minimum income necessary to afford basic necessities

¨Prejudices

Negative beliefs or attitudes held about an entire group Broadly applied and based on subjective and inaccurate information Prejudgments based on stereotypes, simplified generalizations abou

Wealth

Net value of assets (all your assets minus your debts) owned by individuals or family, is an alternative measure of household resources. Sociologists use the term class in general to identify groups of people in similar social & economic positions, who have similar opportunities in life, and who would benefit (or be hurt) by the same kinds of government policies.

Taxation continued

Since 1960, there has been a steady decrease in the amount of taxes the rich pay, from 90 percent to 39 percent Series of tax loopholes allow most wealthy people to avoid paying their full taxes

Social construct

Social phenomenon invented by humans and shaped by social forces present at the time and place of its creation Idea of "races" is invented, but as long as people and governments see this as meaningful, "races" are real

Meritocracy

System where rewards and positions are distributed by ability, not social background or personal connections Education maintains privileged access to scarce positions if families with more resources are able to invest in better education

Government policies

Taxation and Minimum Wage

Technology

Technology jobs require higher levels of education Tends to replace jobs with middle and lower levels of education College wage premium: Having a college degree pays off in terms of obtaining a better-paying job -* People with less than a college degree have seen their earnings decline or have increasing trouble finding good jobs. Less educated people can't find jobs, and higher education has not kept pace with technology needs Therefore inequality has increased

Minimum Wage

The U.S. minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation The actual value of income has declined significantly since 1970

Different Measures of poverty

U.S. government measures poverty by setting poverty line

Poverty Rate

U.S. poverty rate is about 17 percent, several points higher than nearest nation United States spends less to directly alleviate poverty through welfare programs than other wealthy countries

Taxation

United States has a progressive tax system—the rich pay a higher tax rate than the poor

Inequality of opportunity

Ways in which opportunities for children and young adults to maximize their potential may be very unequal

Women

Women make up nearly six in ten (58 percent) workers in low-wage jobs that typically pay less than $11 per hour. Women are even more overrepresented in the lowest-wage jobs: close to seven in ten (69 percent) of those holding jobs that typically pay less than $10 per hour are women. And a disproportionate number of women in low-wage jobs are women of color

Pager (2007) and Bertrand and Mullainathan (2004):

¡Found racial discrimination plays role in employment in the United States today

W. E. B. Du Bois

challenged view that distinctive traits had biological component

Society

divided into horizontal layers or strata called social classes, which differ from one another by the amount of resources they command. One's education, gender, age, talent may affect a person's social class position and his or her access to goods and services.

Weber's view of race

essentialism

Equality of opportunity

exists where all children have similar chances to succeed in life, regardless of whether they were born in wealthy or poor families

Opportunity unequally distributed

if individual's chances to do well depend on advantages (or disadvantages) of family and circumstances he or she was born into

Social mobility

looks at the strength of association between parents' social standing and child outcomes

¨The term racism includes two phenomena

prejudice and discrimination

According to Weber

racial group membership is based on shared physical and biological traits, whereas ethnic group membership is based on perceived cultural similarities

Social Class

ranking or grouping of individuals according to their position in the economic scheme of things. Overwhelmingly, we define social class by occupation.

Income

refers to the receipt of money or goods over a particular accounting period - income is from a job, investments, ownership of income-generating properties or business

Hunting & Gathering Societies

shared their limited resources and food supplies among all members of the tribe fairly for most part. -More egalitarian society.

Poverty Rate

the ratio of the number of people (in a given age group) whose income falls below the poverty line; taken as half the median household income of the total population. It is also available by broad age group: child poverty (0-17 years old), working-age poverty and elderly poverty (66 year-olds or more). First set in mid-1960s by Social Security Administration official; adjusted annually for inflation In 2016, poverty line for family of four was $24,300 Method of measuring poverty has not changed since 1960s

In 2014

the top 1 percent had about 20 percent of total income

1960s

the top 1 percent had about 8 percent of total income

Ethnicity

viewed as more polite than race ¡Federal government defines Hispanics as an "ethnic group," but popular culture views them as a racial group

Kritz and Gurak (2004):

¡1965: immigration reform made it easier for people to enter the United States ¡Walters and Trevelyan (2011): Top six countries sending immigrants to the United States are Mexico, China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, and El Salvador

¨Income gap

¡Between whites and blacks úExcept for a few counties, per capita income of whites is much higher than for blacks úHas changed very little over the last few decades ¡Black and Latino families more likely than white families to fall below the poverty line úQuarter of all black and Latino families, but just 10 percent of white families, are living in poverty úAsian American families average higher incomes than whites, but when we adjust for education levels, whites earn more

¨Empirical evidence of ongoing prejudice and discrimination

¡Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Landmark pieces of legislation that legally prohibited discrimination

¨Discrimination

¡Involves actions rather than beliefs ¡Any behavior that harms individuals or puts them at a disadvantage on the basis of their group membership ¡Maintains social hierarchy by blocking advancement of subordinate groups

Hall 2011

¡Race based on Arab heritage in West Africa -local groupings like black, white, and red had little to do with individuals' surface physical appearances but instead were based on whether individuals were believed to have noble ancestry, which meant Arab heritage

The constructivist view of race

¡Race is an invented classification system ¡Race is socially created ¡Societies' ideas are subject to change In the United States race has historically mattered more than ethnicity, as race has been tied to citizenship and the benefits that accompany it

¨Psychologists

¡Saw racism as an expression of personality disorders ¡Overlook social contexts that shape underlying racists beliefs and behaviors

¨Employment gap

¡Smaller proportion of African Americans able to move into upper-middle-class occupations úRemain underrepresented in professional and managerial positions úRemain overrepresented in the lower-wage service sector

Landry and Marsh (2011)

¡Upper-middle-class blacks earn 85 percent of the income of whites in similar professions

Assimilation

¨: People shifted from original ethnicity to American ethnic identity

Immigration

¨Other major demographic trend reshaping racial and ethnic makeup of the United States

essentialism

¨presumes that identity of people is inherited and deep-seated in their very being.

¡Royster (2003)

úFound black workers disadvantaged by limited network connections úWhite workers perceived a black advantage due to affirmative action

¡Classifications

úIndividual discrimination úInstitutional or structural discrimination

¨Racial group designation is a matter of socialization

úSocialization: Having been trained to pick out particular bodily characteristics and associate them with particular groups

¡Forms

úUsing negative words or phrases in reference to particular group úPlacing limits on opportunities based on racial group membership úEngaging in violent act against an individual or member of a racial group