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Chapter 2:
Inequality: Poverty
and Wealth

What’s the difference?

Stratification
Income
Wealth

Defining Economic Inequality

Social Stratification

To rank individuals based on objective criteria, often wealth, power, and/or prestige

Naturally creates inequality

Income

Refers to the money received for work or through investments

Wealth

Refers to all material possessions including income

Defining Economic Inequality

Income Distribution

About 60 percent of Americans receive less than 27 percent of the nation’s income

The wealthiest fifth of the population receive nearly 50 percent of the money

How is this a problem?

Defining Economic Inequality

Wealth

Includes income and assets

In the U.S. the top 1 percent of wealth holders in the United States has more total wealth than the bottom 90% combined

Do you think this is okay if these people worked hard to make this money?

Question

What’s the difference between:

Power and prestige

Defining Economic Inequality

Power

The ability to get people to do what you want without having to make them do so

Persuasive power

Means that you use direct or indirect methods to get what you want

Prestige

Refers to the level of esteem associated with our status and social standing

What social class are you?

Elite
Upper middle
Middle class
Working class
Lower class
Underclass

How Does Inequality Affect the Lives
of People?

Upper or Elite Class 1-2%

Very small in number and holds significant wealth (3 million Americans)

Upper Middle Class 15%

Consists of high-income members of society who are well educated but do not belong to elite membership of the super wealthy (income >100,000)

How Does Inequality Affect the Lives
of People?

Middle Class 34%

Have moderate incomes

Varies from low-paid white-collar workers to well-paid blue-collar workers

(teachers, policemen, skilled laborers)

Defining Economic Inequality

Working Class 30 %

Makes up about 30 percent of population and comprises people who completed high school and lower levels of education

(hourly waged, manual labor)

Defining Economic Inequality

Lower Class

The ones who truly feel the effects of poverty

Often live paycheck to paycheck, if they are employed at all

More than two-thirds of African Americans and 60 percent of Hispanics in the nation live near or below the poverty line

(37 million Americans, paycheck to paycheck if employed at all)

Defining Economic Inequality

The Urban Underclass

The homeless and the chronically unemployed

Often live in substandard housing in neighborhoods with poor schools, high crime, and heavy drug use

Rarely have health care coverage and often lack a high school education

How do people become apart of this social class?

Why the urban underclass?

Sociologist William J. Wilson

Both their lack of vision and lack of role models are what make it difficult for many to imagine any other way of life

Social Class as it relates to:

Neighborhood
Health
Family
Education

How are the above correlated with one’s social class?

Neighborhood

How would one’s neighborhood affect their position in life?

The Effects of Social Class

Neighborhoods

People’s behavior is influenced by quality of the neighborhoods they live in

Over time, poor people tend to settle in areas already populated by their own class

How does growing up in a wealthy/poor neighborhood affect your life chances?

Neighborhood

Growing up in a wealthy neighborhood

Children from these areas do better in school, have lower risk of teen pregnancies, and have higher standardized test scores

Disadvantaged communities

Lower birth weights, poorer health, and lower levels of education

Social class and health

Do poor people have poor health and why?
What is the link between poverty and access to food?
Diseases?

The Effects of Social Class

Health

Poor women with children, who frequently have insufficient diets, suffer higher rates of mental depression and worse physical health than wealthier counterparts

Access to food influences both physical and mental health.

Social class and health

Health and socioeconomic status (SES) have been found to be linked

Those with greater SES tend to enjoy better health, whereas those with a lower SES tend to have poorer health

An individual’s health influences his social stratification across a lifetime

Social class and Family

How does family structure affect poverty rates?
What does family composition affect children living in poverty?

The Effects of Social Class

Family

U.S. Census Bureau found correlations between family form and poverty rates

Female-headed households have poverty rates nearly three times higher than national rate for all families

Female poverty rates also higher than rates for households headed by single men

Social class and education

How is educational attainment affected by one’s social class?
Do different social classes have access to the same levels of education?

The Effects of Social Class

Education

In the U.S., free 12-year education is available to every child regardless of family or class

Not all educational opportunities are the same

Jonathan Kozol

Schools in urban communities frequently lack basic educational supplies

Suburban schools often have a surplus of supplies and staff

WHY?

Social class and education

Dramatic differences lay in structure of system

Places with higher property taxes receive more educational funding

Poor urban areas need more help but actually get less

Mobility

What does the term ‘mobility’ mean?
How easy is it to attain mobility?

The Effects of Social Class

Social Mobility

Term that describes ability to change social classes

Horizontal Mobility

Refers to moving within same status category

Intragenerational Mobility

Occurs when individual changes social standing, especially in the workforce

Intergenerational Mobility

Refers to change family members make from one social class to next through generations

Who are the poorest?

Which age group do you think is the poorest and why?

How Does the United States Define Poverty?

Transitional Poverty

Temporary state that occurs when someone goes without a job for a short period of time

Marginal Poverty

Occurs when person lacks stable employment

Residual Poverty

This type is chronic and multigenerational

Relative Poverty

State that occurs when we compare our financial standing and material possessions to those around us

Functionalism

Functionalists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore

Every system tends toward equilibrium, so inequality in the U.S. is inevitable – even essential – for society to function smoothly

Society has various positions that need to be filled

The more important the position is, the rarer the skill or the longer the training period required for it

Functionalism

Occupations that are greatly rewarded in our society are the ones that require the most skills
Idea suggests that the U.S. is a meritocracy
Meritocracy Argument

States that those who get ahead in society do so based on their own merit

Agree?

Conflict Theory

Conflict theorists generally follow the ideas of Karl Marx

Stratification occurs because the proletariat (workers) are exploited by the bourgeoisie (owners)

Sociologist Melvin Tumin

Few things affect a person as much as social class

Suggests that we reward certain occupations because we’re forced to

Symbolic Interactionism

Interactionists often look at the meaning behind social problems
William Ryan

Suggests that when people look at inequality, they tend to view those at the bottom as creators or co-creators of their problem

Blaming the Victim

Involves blaming those who suffer from a social problem for that problem

Believes that such a process ignores the structural problems of the society

Symbolic Interactionism

Sociologist William J. Wilson (2009)

Suggests that the mentality of blaming the victim prevents us from actually seeing social structural problems that lead to inequality