copyright © 2012 pearson education, inc. all rights reserved. poverty chapter 6 poverty this...

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter 6Poverty Poverty

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Myth or Fact?

Both the poor and the affluent are a drain on the treasury and both pay to support it.

Receiving welfare encourages women to have more children, to leave their husbands and to avoid work.

Fact Myth


Poverty and Unemployment

Unemployment can lead some people to desperation.

Timothy Bowers committed a bank robbery because he couldn’t find a job and wanted to be in prison until he was old enough to collect Social Security.


Defining Poverty

Poverty is the lack of resources necessary for material well-being: food, water, housing, land, and health care.

Absolute poverty is the lack of resources that leads to hunger and physical deprivation.

Relative poverty refers to a deficiency in material and economic resources compared with some other population.


Extent of Poverty in the U.S.

In 2008 in the U.S. 40 million people, or 1 in 8 citizens, or 13.2% of the population, were living in poverty

The poorest 20% of households receive less than 4% of the total income while the wealthiest 20% receive 50%.


Who are the poor? Racial and Ethnic Minorities

Most of the poor in the U.S. are white, while nonwhites are disproportionately more likely to be poor than are whites.

Children Thirty five percent of the poor are children under

the age of eighteen. The Elderly

Poverty is relatively low among the elderly: It is slightly lower than among non-elderly adults.


Who are the poor? Women

A growing number of women are among the poor, which has been called the feminization of poverty.

Central City and Rural Dwellers Poverty tends to be concentrated in certain

places such as central-city and rural areas. The Disabled

As many as one-third of the poor suffer from severe physical disabilities.


Poverty and Employment

The Working Poor Despite common misconceptions, many

adults below the official poverty line actually work for a living, often at low-paying or part-time work.

The Unemployed The unemployed receive unemployment

benefits for a time, but these are exhausted eventually.


Homelessness

Causes of homelessness can be found in recent social trends, such as the decline in the number of industrial jobs that

pay a living wage, the flight of jobs from the cities where people

live, the contraction of social welfare, increases in poverty, and the decline in the amount of low-cost housing.


The Functionalist Perspective

The Stratification System Stratification exists because it makes some

useful contribution to the ongoing maintenance of society.

Davis and Moore argue All societies must ensure that people will fill

essential positions and perform important tasks. Some positions are more important or more difficult

than others. The stratification system serves to motivate people

to occupy and work hard at all of these essential positions.



The Economy Normal and sometimes desirable changes in

the economy affect the level of poverty, such as inflation and technological innovation.

These kinds of changes are necessary for a healthy economy but their cumulative impact is to increase rates of unemployment and poverty, which is called structural unemployment.



Gans (1994) suggests that there are benefits to society from poverty ensuring that society’s “dirty work” will be done subsidizing many of the activities of the affluent creating jobs for people who serve the poor creating a market for inferior goods using the poor as symbols of the “underdog”


The Conflict Perspective Marx viewed society as involving constant

struggle between social classes over scarce resources. The affluent are merely using the resources

available to protect their own position. Once people become successful they tend

to pass on their success to their children and this makes it more difficult for people on the bottom to move up.


The Interactionist Perspective and Cultural Analysis

The cultural analysis of poverty focuses on the psychological orientations that may emerge among groups of people who live under conditions of poverty. Some people who live in poverty develop a

cultural orientation that helps them adapt to their life circumstances in a way that enables them to feel good.

Criticisms of this perspective include “blaming the victim” and its limited applicability.


Future Prospects

Approaches to reducing poverty include Encouraging full employment

A situation in which everyone or nearly everyone who wants to work can find a job

Educating and training the poor to compete effectively in the job market

Early childhood interventions include Head Start Jobs programs include on-the-job training and

temporary public service jobs


Future Prospects

Providing income maintenance programs Social insurance programs

Social Security Medicare

Public assistance programs Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) General Assistance (GA) Medicaid Noncash Benefits


Theories of Poverty


Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism type theories argue that the poor, criminals, and others at the bottom of the stratification system are either biologically inferior or inferior due to character.

Essentially, the poor are poor because they are lazy, waste their time and money, and simply do not have the self-control to succeed.

There are biological factors that predispose individuals to live in poverty.

The emphasis is on the individual characteristics of the poor rather than the conditions of poverty.


Social Darwinism

Richard Herrnstein wrote The Bell Curve in 1994, which directly argued for a perspective of poverty very much in line with Social Darwinism.

Herrnstein argued that there is a direct correlation between one's cognitive ability (as measured by IQ scores) and their position in the stratification system.


Social Darwinism

Biological, rather than social, factors determine one's cognitive ability.

Intelligence and not social class is the most accurate predictor of success.

The current stratification system is a direct result of cognitive ability rather than social class.


Social Darwinism Critique

An inaccurate focus on the characteristics of the poor rather than the causes of poverty.

Many of the poor have lower IQ scores because they are poor and not the other way around.

Children with anemia and iron deficiency due to hunger are on the average 25 percent behind other children in mental development.


Social Darwinism Critique

A study of 1023 elementary school children found that test scores of these hungry children rose dramatically after they were provided breakfast at school (Tufts University Center on Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Policy).


Culture of Poverty

Oscar Lewis (1914-1970), a social anthropologist, is the most noted theorist in this area.

Lewis attempt to show the existence of culture of poverty that produces personality and value differences among the poor.

In other words, the propensity to be poor is acquired in the process of primary socialization.


Culture of Poverty-Five Major points

First Point:

The conditions of poverty present the poor with unique problems in living when compared tot he non-poor



Second Point:

In order to cope with these problems, the poor develop a unique lifestyle



Third Point:

Through the collective interaction by the poor, and isolation from the non-poor, the unique life style becomes a common characteristic of the poor, producing common values, attitudes, and behavior (a subculture is developed)



Forth Point:

The characteristics of this subculture become relatively independent from the social conditions that helped to create it.

The subculture becomes institutionalized and self-perpetuating

The children are socialized into this culture of poverty



Fifth Point:

Because this process of socialization shape the basic character and personality traits of those raised in poverty those traits are maintained even in the face of opportunity to become non-poor

Hence, poverty remains


A Structural View of Poverty

A structural view of poverty argues that poverty can only be understood and explained with reference to political and economic characteristics of society rather than any characteristics of the poor.

This theory does not neglect the characteristics of the poor; it is just not the primary focus.

As it is with the working class, middle class, and upper class, the individual characteristics are secondary to the structural situation.



The occupational structure

The poor are at the bottom of the occupational structure with few skills or only skills that can be easily learned by anyone.

The large number of people competing for such jobs reduces the chances for secure jobs and reduces the wages when the jobs are found.

The poor are most affected by the business cycles of boom and bust creating cycles of employment and unemployment.



The property structure

The poor own very little if anything, which makes them dependent upon others for their job and livelihood

This lack of property or capital means that the poor are left without resources when employment comes to an end

When some Native Americans learned to use property to their advantage, the economic situation improved. However, they first had to have the property as a resource



The authority structure

The poor are almost exclusively located at the bottom of the economic or occupational authority structure

Politically, the poor can be considered the most powerless of classes

When the poor have had political influence, it was often gained outside the normal channels of political influence

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