SOC 100 Ch 7

Identify the factors that were responsible for the shrinking size of the American middle class after the early 1970s.

An expanding income gap between the highest paid executives and employees in the middle ranks; greater demand for higher-skill jobs; the emergence of the low-wage service sector

In ___, the distinction between the working and the nonworking poor is not just about those who have jobs and those who do not, but about those who ___ help versus those who don't. Supposedly, the nonworking could work but ___. ___, however, the line between the working and nonworking poor does not mean a great deal, since families cross it often, as breadwinners gain or lose employment.

Politics, deserve, choose not to, sociologically

Example of descending social mobility.

A paramedic gets a job as a hospital orderly

Example of horizontal social mobility.

A registered nurse leaves nursing to become a high-school teacher

Example of structural mobility

Farm occupations are a smaller percentage of the total in the sons' generation than the fathers'

Policy or proposal meant to support equality of opportunity

Law mandates that young people in the US attend school (or be homeschooled) until their late teens

In an elite-mass dichotomy system, a small number of people hold a great deal of power over others. According to ___, this kind of system was ideal if ___ status was based on a ___ system, while ___ saw these systems as inherently ___.

Pareto, elite, meritocratic, Mills, unequal

Identify examples of income.

Social Security checks; a retired worker's pension

Identify the factors that are responsible for recent increases in income inequality, as reflected in an even-larger ratio between CEO pay and worker pay.

The changing requirements for existing jobs; the changing mix of available jobs

Identify the factors that contribute to this growing discrepancy between the value of college and the supply of college graduates

The cost burden of college has increasingly shifted to students and families; low-income high schoolers tend to have examples around them of people for whom college did not work out, rather than one for whom it did

Example of ascending social mobility.

A retail store cashier gets a job as a machinist

Identify which of the following people could be considered free riders.

A student participant in a group project lets her fellow participants do all the work but gets the same grade as they do; a person attends a potluck without bringing a dish, reasoning that there is always plenty of food at such events

Example of exchange mobility

Although few sons of lower nonmanual workers end up in that same class, the overall size of the class is roughly the same in both generations

Identify the reasons why the ideology of equal opportunity resonates with most Americans

Americans tend to believe that inequality of opportunity stifles meritocracy; we live in a bourgeois society, in which the maximization of profit is the primary business incentive.

Example of equality of opportunity

An orchestra conducts blind auditions, with each player hidden from the audience by a curtain

Example of equality of outcome

An orchestra likes two violinists competing for the same spot so much that it decides to hire both

Place the professions in descending order of social prestige, as measured by the Index of Occupational Status, commonly called the Duncan scale.

Architect, vet, firefighter, welder, retail salesperson, bartender

The owner of a large franchised restaurant would be labeled as...

Capitalist

What is the main problem with basing affirmative action on class rather than race?

Class can be more easily faked than race

A freelance graphic artist would be labeled as...

Contradictory

The head of a printing press operations at a major newspaper would be labeled as...

Contradictory

How much social mobility is there in the United States compared to most other industrialized nations?

Mobility is about the same in the US as elsewhere

Rousseau accepts that a certain amount of ___ inequality is unavoidable. But he believes ___ inequality can and should be eliminated. This kind of inequality is the result of differences in privilege and unequal access to resources. He believes the main root of the problem is ___, an institution that leads not only to injustice but also to ___.

Natural; social; private property; social conflict

A salaried paralegal assistant at a law firm would be labeled as...

Proletariat

Identify examples of wealth.

Stocks and bonds; money in a 401k account; equity in an owner-occupied home

Policy or proposal meant to support equality of outcome

The "guaranteed minimum income" proposal would provide every family with a standard income they could live on comfortably, regardless of employment status or education

Policy or proposal meant to support equality of condition

The "independent living proposal" provides training, services, and benefits to youth who were in foster care in the past but are now legally adults; this helps them get jobs and learn to live independently

Example of individual descending mobility

The son of a lower nonmanual worker becomes an upper manual worker

Example of individual ascending mobility

The son of an upper manual worker becomes an upper nonmanual worker

Example of equality of condition

Two cellists from the same music school audition for the same jobs

A sequence of events, starting around 1700, led to today's highly globalized economy and unequal global wealth distribution.

Virtually the entire world lives at subsistence level; in Europe, technological advances in farming lead to dramatically increased food production; factory production replaces European cottage industries; Western colonialism at its peak transfers wealth from the colonies to Europe; post-independence, former colonies of Europe struggle economically