Lessons

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson you should be able to do the following:

• Define social stratification and distinguish between open and closed stratification systems.
• Distinguish between the two types of poverty, absolute and relative.
• Define social class and identify the three components sociologists use to measure class: wealth, income, and power.
• Define the three different types of social mobility within the United States as well as the likelihood of social mobility within the U.S. class system.
• Define poverty in the United States, including how we calculate poverty and who is most likely affected by poverty in the United States.
• Distinguish between structural and individual theories of poverty.
• Describe the social welfare state in the United States.

Introduction

As noted in Lesson 1, social problems can refer to conditions that may reflect a discrepancy between a society's values and the reality in which members live. In the United States, many of our core social values stress individual freedom and equal opportunity. Many Americans refer to "the American dream," where anyone can succeed despite their individual background (family status) or characteristics (race, ethnicity, gender, class) as long as they work hard and take advantage of the opportunities given to them. When people do not succeed in the United States, our society often blames the individuals themselves for being lazy or developing behaviors that prevent them from finding good jobs and getting a good education. Unfortunately, when we look at the history of the United States, we discover that it is a society that does not provide equal opportunities for everyone and often prevents people from gaining wealth and success. Racism, sexism, and classism have always existed within our society and still exist today. Therefore, the first section of this course examines the social stratification systems that influence the likelihood of obtaining "the American dream" and help create the social problems we address throughout the semester.

Social Stratification refers to a system in which groups of people are divided into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige. It is a hierarchy in which some members of a society have access to greater wealth, status, and power than others. An easy way to think about stratification systems is to imagine a ladder. Each rung represents a division between people within a society. The higher people step on the ladder, the more money, influence, and power they have to wield over those below them. The people at the top of the ladder—their culture, values, and interests—are seen as the whole of society and in general are considered more valuable than those at the bottom of the ladder. In most societies the divisions among people are not equal, that is, the rungs of a society's hierarchical ladder are not evenly spaced. In most societies, the ladder looks more like a pyramid with a few members making up the most privileged sector of society and the majority of members filling up the bottom. People at the top of the class ladder have wealth and opportunities for education and high-status careers. People at the bottom of the class ladder live in poverty and have fewer opportunities.

Stratification systems can be either open or closed; you can either move up the ladder, or you cannot. Historically, most systems within societies have been closed. This means that you are stuck for the rest of your life in whatever group or position you are born into within the social structure. The most extreme closed stratification system in history is the slave system in which people are considered the property of someone else. Today the United States is considered to have an open system of stratification, based on social class. Class refers to a large group of people who rank close to one another in wealth, power, and prestige. These three elements separate people into different lifestyles, give them different life chances, and provide them with a distinct perspective. However, unlike slavery and caste systems, class stratification systems allow mobility. People do not necessarily stay in the social class into which they were born. People can move up or down the class ladder.

As Kendall notes, age, race and gender all correlate with one's chances of being poor. Children and women constitute the vast majority of America's poor. Children make up forty percent of all people who live in poverty, and women make up sixty-six percent of adults who live in poverty. Race and ethnicity also correlate with poverty: whites have an eight percent chance of being poor; Asian Americans have a twelve percent chance; Hispanic Americans and Native Americans have a twenty-three percent chance; and African Americans have a twenty-four percent chance. Although racial minorities have a greater chance of being poor than white Americans, whites still make up the majority of poor people in the United States. How is this possible? Eight percent of white Americans is a larger number of people than twenty-three percent of Hispanics and Native Americans and a larger number than twenty-four percent of African Americans.

Kendall distinguishes between sociologists who focus on individual and cultural explanations of poverty and those who focus on structural explanations. Most of our popular conceptions of poverty fall within the former. Many Americans believe that people who are poor are lazy and refuse to work, yet get more special advantages than other Americans. Although these sterotypes are, unfortunately, often represented in media portrayals, they seldom reflect reality. Most sociologists are not satisfied with individual and cultural explanations for poverty and instead look at how our economy is structured. They focus on unemployment and the types of employment available to see if enough jobs are available to people within a society.

Reading Assignment

Kendall, Chapter 2, "Wealth and Poverty: U.S. and Global Economic Inequalities"

Digital Coursepack:

Conley, Dalton M. 1999. "Wealth Matters." In Being Black, Living in the Red: Race, Wealth and Social Policy. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 1–7.

Polakow, Valerie. 1997. "The Shredded Net: The End of Welfare as We Knew It." SAGE Race Relations Abstracts 22(3): 3–22.

E-journal:

Abramovitz, Mimi. 2001. "Everyone is Still on Welfare: The Role of Redistribution in Social Policy." Social Work 44(4): 297–308.

Ehrenreich, pp. 1–10

Kendall defines social class and outlines the class structure within the United States; she addresses the social problem of poverty and the vast wealth/income gap between the rich and the poor in the United States. She provides a comprehensive look at how we measure class and the perceptions of poor people within our society. Conley's article gives a more micro approach to understanding the advantages of having wealth in the United States and the racial implications of wealth inequalities. The Polakow article, and the other articles, discuss the changes in the welfare system and our common misconceptions about who receives welfare in the United States. Ehrenreich outlines her micro study on being poor and trying to succeed in the United States after welfare reform. All these readings attempt to challenge our understanding of what social class and poverty look like in the United States today.

Study Questions

Complete the multiple-choice and true-false quizzes for Kendall, Chapter 2, at the Allyn and Bacon website.

Writing Assignment 1

Reaction Paper #1 (2–4 pages)

This assignment requires you to think critically about what it means to be among the working poor in the United States. You need to fill out a budget, do some Internet searching on cost of living, and then examine the various theories of poverty that explain poverty in the United States. There are three parts to this assignment; complete them all. Please read all three parts before you begin.

Part I: Planning Your Family's Needs

Your assignment is to make a monthly budget for a family of one wage earner and two children. Assume you are taking in $6.50 an hour, which is the equivalent to about an $8.00/hour wage (after taking out basic taxes: social security, state and federal). Please follow the guidelines below.

1. Find an apartment in a U.S. city by searching online. You can find an ad by going to the classified section of any online city newspaper. Then copy and paste the ad into your assignment document. The apartment must provide enough room for yourself and your children (i.e., a one-bedroom apartment is not going to be big enough).
2. If you want to improve your wages, you may find another part-time job or a better job (you must include a copy of the ad for the job). Keep in mind that you must include transportation costs and child-care for any extra hours you work. You must also include what additional qualifications (education, experience, skills, etc.) you will need to have to apply for the position.
3. Take into account that your children will outgrow clothes on a regular basis and will need to see the doctor from time to time.
4. You must feed your children adequately; living on beans is not an option.
5. You should think about entertainment. Any type of activity that gets you out of the house (movies, eating out, trips to the zoo and museum) should be considered.
6. If you leave the house without your kids, you must hire a baby-sitter. Assume that your children are in school, so you do not need child-care during school hours.

Part II: Your Budget

Please include a monthly dollar amount (remember: you make $6.50/hour).

• Rent:
• Laundry:
• Food:
• Entertainment:
• Clothes:
• Phone:
• Health Care Costs:
• Insurance (renters):
• Utilities (electricity, gas, water) (min. of $150):
• Household supplies (dishes, brooms, soap, shampoo, sponges, etc.):
• Kids' supplies (school supplies, toys, and other learning devices):
• Car (insurance, gas, maintenance) or other transportation:
• Other (savings):

Part III: Written Response

A brief discussion of your budget should include answers to the following questions:

1. Why did you allocate the money the way you did? What did your family have to go without? Would you survive?
2. Was this a realistic budget? What is missing from it? Include some sources that indicate the cost of living in your city. (I suggest you look on the Internet. This data is relatively easy to find. If you do have problems, email me and I will point you in the right direction.) You do not qualify for federal or state assistance; what does this tell us about the working poor in America?
3. Based on your family's situation, what do you think are the causes of poverty in the United States? Briefly discuss the theories of poverty described in the textbook; then choose one that you think best describes your family's situation.

Organize your paper in any way you feel appropriate. Creativity and critical thinking will be graded highly as well as clear organization and sound content. Start with a strong thesis statement that summarizes your main ideas, then organize the body of your paper to support this thesis. Make sure that you refer to the readings to support your points. Demonstrate to me that you have not only done the readings but can combine their ideas into a coherent, concise argument. Define all concepts you include in your essay. Since your argument needs to fit in the two-to-four-page limit, pick a couple of themes and stay focused. Edit, review, and rewrite!