Chapter 6 - Economic Inequality, Wealth, and Poverty

How much annual income do you think a household with 1 adult needs to earn to avoid living in poverty?

13,000 dollars a year= poverty line

What about a household with 2 adults?

16,000 a year= poverty line

1 adult and 1 child

19,000 a year= poverty line

a family of 4?

24,000 a year= poverty line

Patterns of poverty in the U.S.- education

Education is one of the best insurance policies for protecting an individual against living in poverty • In general, the higher a person's level of educational attainment, the less likely that person is to be poor.

Understanding economic inequality and wealth, and poverty

It is not an individual strain. It is structural But, how can people improve their conditions when they lack resources? Ending or reducing poverty begins with the recognition that doing so is a worthy ideal and an attainable goal- a moral responsibility.

Extreme poverty

Living on less than $1.25 a day.

People in this tented village in New Delhi, India, live in?

extreme poverty

meritocracy

is a socio system in which individuals get ahead and earn rewards based on their individual efforts and abilities. People theoretically have an equal chance to succeed.

from the SF perspective:

o Economic inequality within a society can be beneficial for society o Unequal pay motivates people to achieve higher levels of training and education and to take on jobs that are more important and difficult by offering higher rewards for higher achievements. ♣ We need to have certain steps. It cannot be a perfect level playing field, needs to still be some sort of hierarchy

According to the SF perspective, poverty results from institutional breakdown:

o Economic institutions that fail to provide sufficient jobs and pay o Educational institutions that fail to equip members of society with the skills o Family institutions that do not provide two parents o Government institutions that do not provide sufficient public support

Patterns of poverty in the U.S. - AGE

o Most of the people that are poor are children!!!! o Roughly 15% of the U.S. live below the poverty line o Roughly 1:3 U.S. children experience poverty for at least part of their childhood. o Education is the answer

How could Tammy have improved her condition?

o She could've not had 4 kids ​o She could've gone to school, accept the cycle is so hard to break. o Picked the potential spouse more carefully o SHE DOESN'T HAVE THE RESOURCES TO EVEN THINK ABOUT HOW SHE COULD FIX THIS

How did Esther Duflo's ted talk inform this discussion?

o We don't know what would help. Because we don't know we don't do anything... that's not ok. o 25,000 children dying. We could give vaccinations and it would help. It's cheap to get them but it's expensive to give them. o Malaria- the leading cause in death for children under the age of 5 -We could solve this by the bed nets and make them free. -It doesn't matter how you got the bed nets​ if you had one you were more likely to by one in the future ​o What did they do with immunization? -Lentils!! o "you cannot helicopter people out of poverty" -we cannot go to every family and give them money. It won't actually solve the problem because we haven't helped them understand why there is a problem.

Relative poverty

refers to a deficiency in material and economic resources compared with some other population

Blaming poverty on the individual rather than on structural and cultural factors implies not only that poor individuals are responsible for their situations, but also that they are responsible for improving their conditions.

thats just a fact

Absolute Poverty

the lack of resources necessary for material well-being: food, water, housing, land, and health care.

Wealth

the total assets of an individual or household minus liabilities. - The richest 1% of adults (ages 20 and older) in the world own nearly half (48 percent) of global household wealth - The richest 10% of adults own 87% of total global wealth. - The poorest half of the world adult population owns barely 1% of global wealth.

is the established poverty level the same across the U.S?

yes!! the established poverty level is the same across the continental United States!

Conflict perspective

• Marx proposed that economic inequality results from the domination of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat • The bourgeoisie accumulates wealth as they profit from the labor of the proletariat, who earn wages far below the earnings of the bourgeoisie. • Modern conflict theorists recognized that the power to influence economic outcomes comes not only from ownership of the means of production but also from: o Management positions o Interlocking board memberships o Control of media o Financial contributions to politicians

SI perspective

• Persons who are labeled "poor" are stigmatized as lazy; irresponsible; lacking in motivation, ability, and morals. • Wealthy persons are viewed as capable, hard-working, motivated, deserving of wealth. • The symbolic interactionist perspective also focuses on the meanings of being poor • The publication of Thomas Piketty's (2014) book capital in the twenty-first century has increased public awareness of economic inequality as a social problem. o Argues that economic inequality will continue to increase to levels that threaten social stability unless governments take such actions as enforcing a global wealth tax • Tammy's problem is structural (primarily). but it's also something we can look at through SI ... because of our feelings and beliefs towards poor people and that they deserve it

Economic inequality, wealth, and poverty, in the united states

• We have the greatest degree of income inequality and the highest rate of poverty of any industrialized nation. • In 2012, the wealthiest one percent of U.S. households earned more than 22.5% of the nation's income. • The top 10% of income earners took home more than half of the nations total income • In 2014, CEOs at the top 350 U.S. corporations received, in salaries and other compensation (such as bonuses and stocks), an average of 303 times the average compensation of U.S. workers • That means that's typical worker would have to work 303 years to earn what a CEO makes in one year.

patterns of poverty in the U.S. - Women

• Women are more likely than men to live below the poverty line (feminization of poverty).

Strategies for action: reducing U.S. poverty and economic inequality

•An important area for reducing economic inequality involves improving the quality and equality of health care and education •Human development - Unlike the economic development approach to poverty alleviation, the health human development approach views people - not money- as the real wealth of a nation. - Investments in human development involve programs and policies that provide adequate nutrition, sanitation, housing, health care (including reproductive health care and family planning), and educational and job training. •A number of tax reforms could also help reduce economic inequality. - Progressive taxes are those in which the tax rate increases as income increases, so that those who have higher incomes are taxed at higher rates.

The safety net: welfare in the U.S

•Myth: 1. People are receiving welfare because they are lazy 2. Most welfare mothers have many children 3. Welfare benefits are granted to many people who are not really poor or eligible to receive them 4. There is widespread abuse and fraud in SNAP by beneficiaries who use their food stamp benefits to purchase been, wine, liquor cigarettes, and/or tobacco or who sell their food stamp benefits for cash. 5. Immigrants place a huge burden on our welfare system. •Realities 1. Most recipients of TANF and SNAP benefits are children and therefore are expected to work. 2. More than 1 in 10 TANF families have earned income from employment but with average monthly earnings of only $838 (in 2011), they could not survive on the income from their jobs. 3. In 2011, the average number of children in families receive TANF was only 1.8: half of families receiving TANF had only one child, and less than 8 percent of families had more than three children. 4. Although some people obtain welfare benefits through fraudulent means, it is much more common for people who are eligible to receive welfare not to receive benefits. 5. A main reason for not receiving benefits is lack of information; people do not know they are eligible 6. The government accountability office found that "trafficking" - selling SNAP benefits for cash- decreased from 3.8 cents per dollar of benefits in 1993 to about 1 cent per dollar of benefits in 2010. 7. Low income noncitizen immigrants, including adults and children, are less likely to receive public benefits than those who are native born 8. South and west = poorest

Crime, social conflict, war

•Poverty and economic inequality are linked to crime and violence •Economic inequality and poverty are often root causes of conflict and war within and between nations - Syria experienced high levels of inequality before civil war broke out - High levels of inequality often precede civil unrest and civil war within countries. - Inequality between nation- states also contributes to conflict. •Poorer countries are more likely than wealthier countries to be involved in civil war, and countries that experience civil war tend to become and/ or remain poor.

patterns of poverty in the U.S.- race and ethnicity

•Poverty rates are higher among blacks, Hispanics, and Asians than among non-Hispanic whites. •Past and present discrimination has contributed to the persistence of poverty among minorities •Other contributing factors include: -Loss of manufacturing jobs from the inner city -The movement of whites and middle- class blacks out of the inner city -The resulting concentration of poverty in predominantly minority inner- city neighborhoods.

Labor force participation, Health problems, hunger and poverty

•The poor in the U.S. are primarily children and adults who are not in the labor force, many U.S. poor are classified as working poor - Individuals who spend at least 27 weeks per year in the labor force, but whose income falls below the official poverty level. •In the U.S., low socioeconomic status is associated with higher incidence and prevalence of health problems, disease, and death. •Hunger in the U.S. is measured by the percentage of households that are "food secure," which means that the household had difficulty providing enough food for all its members due to a lack of resources. •in 2013, nearly 14% of U.S. households were food insecure at some time during the year.