Soc 110 Inquizitive Chapter 10

According to Herrnstein and Murray's 1994 study, identify the conclusions that can be drawn on the relationship between poverty and parenting patterns.

- Government efforts to help people out of poverty are largely futile. - Good parenting and economic success have a common cause. - IQ is causally significant for poverty.

Identify the arguments David Grusky makes about the "perverse incentives" theory.

-Grusky argues that Americans are culturally primed to value work. -Grusky argues that the Clinton reforms of the 1990s removed any possibility of "perverse incentives."

Identify the policies experts say would lessen economic inequality in the United States.

-Increase the minimum wage. -Tax the wealthiest Americans more.

Identify some of the shortcomings of the welfare bureaucracy in the United States today.

-Offices for certain programs are inconveniently located and have limited open hours -By imposing time consuming participation requirements, welfare makes job hunting harder.

Identify the factors that contributed to the rise in the eviction rate of low-income families, according to sociologist Matthew Desmond's study starting in the mid-1990s.

-stagnating incomes, -rising rents -reduced government rental assistance

Three different hypotheses have been advanced about the relationship between family poverty and children's development. Match each label to the corresponding hypothesis.

1. Material deprivationGrowing up in dirty, polluted environments makes children more likely to develop asthma and other health issues. 2. No effectThe same personality traits that make one successful in the labor market also make one successful as a parent. 3. Parental stressParents who work long hours at low-wage jobs may be less patient and nurturing in their child-raising habits.

Sociological theories about the culture of poverty and the underclass have profoundly shaped American views of poverty, and poverty research as well.

1. Oscar Lewis writes "The Culture of Poverty," where he argues that poor people adopt practices that prevent them from getting ahead. 2. Edward Banfield writes The Unheavenly City, arguing that the poor were trapped in a cycle of poverty because they were not future-oriented. 3. Ken Auletta writes, in The New Yorker, that the "underclass" are increasingly deviant and dangerous. 4. Charles Murray writes Losing Ground, in which he argues that the behavior of the poor is a rational response to social welfare programs.

In this video, sociologist Matthew Desmond describes the consequences for a family being evicted from rental housing (3:50-6:00).

1. job loss 2. greater difficulty finding a new place to live 3. loss of eligibility for Section 8 assistance

In the wake of William Julius Wilson's research on employment and marriage patterns among the poor, identify whether or not the following policies were enacted in the United States to "make work pay."

1. time limit on unemployment benefits 2. income limits for medicaid eligibility raised 3. federal earned income tax credit expanded

Using the information in the figure, place the states in order from highest to lowest cost of living.

1.Hawaii 2. California 3. Washington 4. Florida 5.Texas 6.Mississippi

Place the stages that contribute to the cycle of poverty in the correct location on the diagram. Men leave their children and the children mothers, either voluntarily or by being sent to jail or prison

1.Men leave their children and the children mothers, either voluntarily or by being sent to jail or prison 2. Men avoid women with children whose father might return 3. Boys grow up with no father figures who are positive role models 4. Young men have children before being properly settled and ready to support them.

Identify the characteristics of what Oscar Lewis calls the "culture of poverty."

Characterics -What is rational and beneficial in the short term can hold a person back in the long run. -The culture of poverty persists even after external structural factors have changed.

Identify the factors that contribute to the "Aspen effect."

Contributing Factor(s):-high levels of wealth inequality-high housing priceseconomic segregationNot Contributing Factor(s):-poor public transportation-rising numbers of service workers

In 1963, Mollie Orshansky tried to define poverty in terms of income relative to the cost of food. This calculation eventually became the basis for the official poverty line in the United States.

Criticism(s): -The multiplier used to extrapolate from food costs to the total cost of living is too low. -The multiplier used to extrapolate from food costs to the total cost of living is too high. -The calculation should focus on the cost of housing instead of the cost of food. Not Criticism(s): -The calculation should not use a multiplier to extrapolate from food costs to the total cost of living.

The goal of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was to build on and expand the benefits provided to the poor by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

False

How might a country's having the feudal system make the development of an extensive social safety net, centuries later, more likely?

In the feudal system, the landholding rich felt responsibility for the living conditions of the serfs.

With children, there is an apparent strong correlation between low family income and poor performance in school. How did Susan Mayer's research undermine the hypothesis that low income causes poor school performance?

Mayer found the parents income when their child was in their twenties seemed to matter almost as much as parental income when that child was an adolescent

Identify the methods the federal government used to discriminate against Black Americans, effectively excluding them from many government benefits.

Method(s):-The federal government used seemingly race-neutral policies to block many black Americans from receiving government support.-The federal government ceded authority for providing benefits to the states and local authorities. Not Method(s):-The federal government established literacy tests for receiving benefits.-The federal government maintained control over the distribution of benefits.

The MTO study examined the consequences of relocating poor families to low-poverty neighborhoods. Identify the outcomes observed and not observed among families who were relocated to low-poverty neighborhoods.

Observed:- reduced rates of asthma and physical injury among children - lower stress and higher happiness levels in adults and children - better school attendance not observed: - fewer parents receiving welfare benefits -higher employment rates and higher earning among parents

What does Susan Mayer mean by saying that "other people's money matters"?

Other people's wealth sets our expectations of what it is reasonable to expect in life.

Which item best summarizes the "no effect" hypothesis about the relation between family income and child development?

Parental characteristics influence both family income and children's development.

Identify the parts of the sociological definition of poverty.

Part(s) of Definition:-caused by economiccircumstances-involves material deprivation-prevents people from living with dignityNot Part(s) of Definition:-measured on a relative scale-measured on an absolute scale

Identify whether or not the following are potential outcomes of a sovereign wealth fund.

Potential Outcome(s) 1.More Americans would become investors, and perhaps try investing in other areas 2.Most Americans would receive some income every year, regardless of employment. 3.It would be difficult to predict one's total income each year because returns to shareholders would vary with the fund's performance. Not Potential Outcome(s) 1.The fund would create a universal basic income, wiping out extreme poverty.

In the United States today, the official federal definition of poverty is based on a 1960s-era definition in which a family's income is compared to the cost of food and other core necessities, such as housing.

Problem(s): -What counts as a necessity cannot be defined once and for all. -The same necessities can have very different costs from one part of the country to another .-Defining poverty solely in terms of income ignores the role of wealth Not Problem(s): -People have fewer children today, on average, than they used to. -The definition ignores the cost of transportation, for instance to and from work.

Match the people to the role they played in helping or hindering the process of Black Americans gaining full participation in Social Security.

Signed legislation extending Social Security to sectors previously excluded: President Harry Truman Signed the legislation that established Social Security: President Franklin Roosevelt Refused to approve Social Security unless it excluded certain kinds of workers: Southern Democrats in Congress

The United States has one of the highest poverty rates in the industrialized world.

True.

Identify the true and false statements about universal basic income.

True: - would be available to everyone in a society - would address the loss of jobs to automation and globalization false: - would operate similarly to how welfare operates now

In this video, sociologist Mario Luis Small explains to Dalton Conley how the rejection of Oscar Lewis's culture of poverty thesis went too far.

Undervalued Virtues -sexual restraint -hard work -punctuality