Transcript Document

Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Chapter 7
Economic Problems: Poverty
and Wealth
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Economic Systems and Changes
•Comparing capitalism and socialism
 Social class: The way economic differences among
groups or individuals in a society are measured
 Economy: Entire social institution that produces and
distributes goods and services
 Capitalist Economies: based on the private ownership
of property and the investment of capital
 Socialist Economies: government owns property, and
profit by individuals is illegal
• Cold War (1945 to 1989): tensions between the
“West” and “East”
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
•The triumph of capitalism
•Social inequality—the unequal distribution
of wealth, income, power, and poverty
•Capitalism offers both individual freedoms
and the opportunity for economic success
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Economic Problems Facing the
United States
•Stagnant incomes
 Real income: income adjusted for inflation
•Taxes
•The savings rate
•A debtor nation
 National debt: the total amount the U.S.
government owes
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Nature of Poverty
•Biological poverty: starvation and
malnutrition
•Relative poverty: people living below
the standard of living for their society
•Official poverty: income level at which
people are eligible for welfare
•Problems with the poverty line
 Not adjusted for different costs of living
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Subjective Concerns and
Objective Conditions
• Objective conditions alone not enough to make
poverty a social problem
• Subjective concerns also essential and more
important
• Changes in concerns and conditions
 People assumed that poverty was a natural part of life
• Launching the war on poverty
 1960, President Kennedy
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Situation Today
• Progress limited since the 1960s
• Controversy over numbers
 Government does not count as income many
benefits people receive from antipoverty
programs.
• The significance of poverty
 No matter how we compute poverty, millions of
Americans are poor.
 How we define poverty has serious consequences
for people’s lives.
 Poverty lies at the root of many other social
problems.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Inequality
•Existence of poverty contradicts the ideal
American vision of success
•Structural inequality: the inequality built into
our economic and social institutions
•Distribution of income and wealth
 Inequality of income
 Inequality of wealth
• Wealth: how much property, savings, investments,
and economic assets people own
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
• Wealth and power
 Vast wealth brings vast power.
 Because the rich can hire top financial advisors,
attorneys, and lobbyists, they perpetuate their
advantages.
• The impact of poverty
 People’s economic circumstances envelop them,
affecting profoundly every aspect of their lives
 Housing and mortgages
 Education
 Jobs
 Criminal justice
 In short: quality of life
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Symbolic Interactionism
•The relativity of poverty
 To fully understand poverty we must focus on
what poverty means to people.
 Poverty is relative: what poverty is differs from
group to group.
•Helps us understand that the meanings of
poverty change as social conditions
change
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Functionalism
•Income inequality helps society.
 Some tasks in society are more important
than others.
 To attract such talented people, the
positions must offer high income and
prestige.
•Poverty is functional for society.
 We need the poor because their poverty
contributes to society’s well-being.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Conflict Theory
• The cause of social inequality
 Basic struggle over limited resources
• A general theory of social class
 Karl Marx (1818–1883)
 Social class revolves around means of production
 Capitalists (bourgeoisie) or workers (proletariat)
 False class consciousness: mistaken idea of
future prosperity
 Class consciousness: realization that there will
never be a future prosperity
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Modifications of Conflict Theory
•Most sociologists acknowledge that
class division is inadequate for today’s
society.
 Erik Wright (1979, 1985)
 Ralf Dahrendorf (1959, 1973)
 Feminist theorists
•Conflict theorists always stress the
relationship between those who have
power and those who do not.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Research Findings
•Permanence and poverty
 Most people who fall below the poverty line
do not stay there permanently.
•Region
 Poor are concentrated in the inner city and
rural areas.
•Race–ethnicity
 Poverty trends can also be predicted using
race–ethnicity.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
•Children in poverty
 Poverty can also be predicted using age as a
variable.
•The elderly
 Their economic situation has improved
•The feminization of poverty
 Poverty in the United States has become
concentrated among women and children.
•An underclass
 People who earn minimum wage are likely to
be poor.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
•Social structure
 Poverty is structural, built into the social
system.
•Is there a culture of poverty?
 Blatant poverty in the midst of plenty
 Culture of Poverty: people who remain
poor develop a way of life that traps them
in poverty
 Some people do adopt a culture of
poverty that perpetuates poor lifestyles.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Who Rules America?
• Conflict theorists stress that to understand social
life we must understand who controls scarce
resources, especially power.
• The power elite: this small group makes decisions
that direct the country—and the world
 No power elite pulling the strings; instead, many interest
groups compete for social, economic, and political power
 The controversy between the pluralists and the
sociologists who support the view of the power elite is
long-standing and unresolved.
• Culture of wealth: set of institutions, customs,
values, worldviews, family ties, and connections—
allow the rich and powerful to perpetuate their
privileges
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Inequality and Global Poverty
•Global stratification
 Residual poverty
 Mass poverty
•Economic Colonialism
 Political colonialism
•An exploiting national power elite
•A culture of poverty
•These three issues work together to form the
plight of the Least Industrialized Nations.
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Policy
•Shifting views of cause and policy
•The basic difference—cause as inside
or outside of people
•Progressive taxation: tax rates that
progress (increase) with income
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Public Assistance Programs
•Social insurance
•Teaching job skills
•Welfare
•Workfare
 “Welfare Queens”: collected welfare
checks or excess amounts of
government aid
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
The Feminization of Poverty
•Refers to the likelihood that those living in
single-mother households are likely to live
beneath the poverty line
•Private agencies and volunteer organizations
•The purpose of helping the poor
 Often connected with ideas of what God wants
•Regulating the poor
 Capitalism needs a dependable supply of
unemployed, low-skilled, temporary workers
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved
Providing Jobs
•Most direct way to deal with poverty
•Education accounts
•Giving the poor more money
 The Income Maintenance Experiments
•Welfare wall: disincentive to work that
comes when the amount that people
earn from working is not much more
than what they get on welfare
Social Problems: A Down-To-Earth Approach, Tenth Edition by James M. Henslin
©2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved