SOC 150 - Essay Questions

Day #2 of 20:

SOC150: SOCIAL PROBLEMS

May 29

UIBE SUMMER SCHOOL

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Today’s Agenda

1. FULL LECTURE – TWO 50- MINUTE SESSIONS

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The main issues for understanding social problems in American society

n Its very distinct system for managing the poor n Its system of rewards: the widest gap between the rich

and poor, a unique system of rewarding people based on merits

n Its system of punishment: it has more people in prison per capita than any country on earth

n The United States at the forefront of the global economy n Its involvement of major international political and

military conflicts n Its role as a consumer society more than any country in

the world 15

The root of America’s contemporary social problems 1930s-present

n Since the 1930s, the development of key ideologies of American life that became the scope of American discourse

n The Accumulation paradox of the 1940s n The Revitalization of Nationalism in the 1950s n The Social Turbulence of the 1960s and 1970s n The Economic Turbulence of the 1980s—these decades also

produced a national sense of identity prevails today

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The heart of America’s belief system that has produced major social problems

n Equality of Opportunity n Individualism n Consumption n These ideas are rooted in a national psyche that

underpins the process of social mobility and the system of a meritocracy

n Meritocracy is a social system that rewards people exclusively based on ability and talent; thus any kind of mobility is based on performance measured through examination and/or demonstrated individual achievement