March 2 nd

1. March 2nd • Sign in • Placement Papers • Handout Midterm Exam #1 • Lecture 3: Poverty and Wealth • Homework: • Domhoff, William Power and Class in the United States • The Engaged Sociologist Chp 7 only pages 91-98

2. Lecture Three Social Stratification: The growing gap between the have and the have-nots

3. Quick Writing: • Based on the person who earned the most income in your family growing up, what was their: • Education - Grade completed? B.A? Professional degree (CPA, JD)? Etc? • Occupation? • Income per year? • Wealth – savings, equity in the home, etc. • What do you hope to accomplish in these four categories? • How do you plan on doing that? • Do you believe you will be better off (income, career, wealth) than your parents? Why or why not?

4. What is your family’s social class? • http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html

5. US: Mixed-class System • Even though we believe that we are pure class system, we are a mixed class system • both ascribed and achieved characteristics determine class position • Ascribed characteristics: race, gender, immigrant status, geography, sexual orientation • Achieved characteristics: education, initiative, determination, intelligence

6. Opportunity Structure Wealth High Income Good Neighborhood Good Schools Good Jobs Access to Health Care → → → → ↑ ↓ → → → →

7. The Color of Opportunity • Does race matter when ex-felons are looking for jobs? • Black men whose job applications stated that they had spent time in prison were only about one-third as likely as white men with similar applications to get a positive response. • White men who are ex-felons are more likely to be hired that black men without a criminal record

8. Barriers to Mobility? • Social Exclusion: cut off from mechanisms that allow social mobility in a society • Neighborhood/Residential • Education • Occupation • Income/Wealth • Culture • Ascribed characteristics – gender, race, class, sexuality often determine a group’s access to resources in society

9. Myth of Horatio Alger • What is the “myth of Haratio Alger”? • The “American Dream” rests on the belief that thru hard work anyone can come being wealthy in American society • Do you think that is true? Why? • According to the Krugman why is Horatio Alger Dead?

10. Polarization of Income and Wealth in 2002 • Income: economic gain from wages (or rent) • Top 20% = 50% of total income • Bottom 20% = 4% of total income • Wealth: value of all economic assets – property, income, income generating property • 0.5% own 35% of nations wealth • 90% at bottom own 28% of national wealth

11. Black/White Wealth Gap • Wealth is the engine of social mobility • Location, education, employment • Average white family has a net worth 7 times that of the average Black family • This gap has grown since the 1960’s • The wealth gap accounts for many of the racial inequities • Racial disparities almost disappear when economic resources are equal

12. Poverty • Poverty: Official definition of poverty was developed in 1964 and is based on food consumption as 1/3 of household costs • Absolute – physical deprivation • Relative – deficiency relative to the population as a whole • What are the main expenditures for households today?

13. Who is most likely to be in Poverty? • 58% of Americans will live poverty for at least 1 year • 1 in 3 will experience extreme poverty for at least one year • 27% will experience poverty before age 30 • What creates this high risk for Americans? • Time – life stages, such as divorce and other unanticipated events • Safety Net – very few social services to help people through rough stages • and Labor Market – not enough good paying jobs

14. Feminization of Poverty • Women are disproportionately represented among the poor • More likely to be in low-pay service jobs • Women still make $0.76 for every man’s dollar • 42% of female-headed households are in poverty, compared to 9% of two-parent families • Children are more likely to live in poverty than adults – 35% of US poor are children

15. The Color of Poverty • Higher rates of poverty among non-whites • White- 8% • Black – 25% • Hispanic – 22% • American Indian – 25% • Average white family has a net worth 7 times that of the average Black family • This gap has grown since the 1960’s • The wealth gap accounts for many of the racial inequities • Racial disparities almost disappear when economic resources are equal

16. Working Poor or the Nearly Poor • Working Poor: workers in jobs at 27 weeks of the year that are less secure, low-paying, and deskilled • In 2005, 36.8% of the poor worked and 11.4% worked full-time • Over 5% of the population are ‘working poor,’ but majority are non-white, female, and immigrant

17. Why so many working poor? • Economic restructuring in the post-industrial society • High skill, high tech, high wage jobs versus • Low skill, low tech, low wage jobs • Increasing gap between the rich and poor • Ratio of CEO-worker pay in 2005 was 262 to 1 (in 1965 it was 24 to 1) • Welfare to work (1996) pushed many poor (primarily women) into low paying, dead-end jobs

18. Narrowing the Wealth Gap • In the reading “The Growing Wealth Gap” the authors present 7 recommendations for narrowing the wealth/income gap. • Which one(s) do you think will: • Help with the growing inequality in our society today? • Be most useful in helping young people your age? • Be the most helpful in our current financial crisis?