Chapter 4: Income based policies and programs Flashcards
How do you describe income distribution in the U.S?
Highly unequal in the U.S.
Income includes social welfare benefits includes social security and unemployment insurance, and capital gains, the gap in income between bottom 20 percent and top 1 continues to increase.
Lowest income group includes minorities, disabilities, and women. Group of people are deemed to be in deep poverty.
What is growth in inequality caused by?
- Anti-gov ideologies, resisting high taxes and reduction strategies, polices that started w/Reagan, wealthy tax cuts
- No min-wage
- Few strikes
- Weakened labor movement
T or f? Minimum wage is not a living wage.
T
What are some reforms dealing with inequality?
- Adopt European poverty standards income less than 50 percent median
- Combat social injustice
- End wealthy tax cuts
- Higher min. wage
- Increase social welfare programs, living wage
- Social work advocacy for change
- Stronger labor movement
T or f? Social workers shouldn’t think of income and economic issues as outside of their realm.
T
What is the impact of inequality on society?
Affects entire society Discrimination affecting mobility and opportunities More distrust Poorer health, and education Higher delinquency rates Higher imprisonment rates Social stability Weaker communities
T or f? People in poverty are more likely to be imprisoned.
T
How do we measure poverty?
Relative poverty
Poverty threshold
Poverty guidelines
Recommendation
What is relative poverty?
Allows people to afford a normal living standard at any time in society
Common measure in most countries take 50 percent median family income in country, division, borough, community and those below are poor.
Those above the poverty line are not poor.
T or f? An example of relative poverty is the following:
if the median household income in a neighborhood is $1 million, then a family earning $100 k is considered poor on the relative poverty scale.
T
What is absolute poverty?
-Use broadly to define poverty
-Since 1960’s U.S. gov defined poverty in absolute terms. - threshold below which families or people lack resources to meet basic healthy needs, to provide food, income, to provide health.
People below line are poor.
How were the HHS poverty guidelines developed?
By Mollie Orshansky in SSA
Developed as means of tracking the war on poverty
Based on economy food plan created for temporary or emergency use
In 1955, consumption survey from DOA that families of more than 3 spent 1/3 of after tax income on food
The poverty rate was calculated by multiplying the cost of food plan by three
Since 1965, how many different versions of poverty do we have, and what are they?
2
Poverty thresholds
Poverty guidelines
T or f? The Census Poverty Threshold is used by U.S Census to report how many people are in poverty every year. It differentiates on certain factors on how many head of households are there, elderly, and children.
T
What is one of the most important universal pro-income programs in the United States?
Social security
T or f? Many people are concerned about social security in that if it will be there for them when they retire, and there are many plans to fix social security.
T
T or f? When Social security was signed into law, the average life expectancy was 64. The earliest retirement age was 65.
T
T or f? Today Americans are living 14 years longer, and retire 3 years earlier, and spend 20 years in retirement.
T
T or f? We are spending more years in retirement, meaning social security payments are going out to people for longer periods of time than 1935.
T
T or f? There has been a change in the dependency ratio: in 1950- there were 16 workers per beneficiary, in 1960- there were 5:1 workers per beneficiary, and today there is 3:1.
T
T or f? The dependency ratio states how many people are working per beneficiary.
T
T or f? There is a worry or concern that as people continue to have fewer children, and there are less people working, the ratio is going to get bigger.
T
T or f? The amount of money staying on as a percentage of the gross national product, gross domestic project and social security, stays at 6.3%.
T
T or f? Americans support social security system, and polls show that they don’t want it to be changed, and this is the same across different parties, and demographic lines.
T
T or f? Recent polls by Gallup organization show large majority of Americans don’t mind paying social security taxes because of the stability and protection they give.
T
T or f? There are powerful organizations in the United States like Save Social security which are working as lobbyists, advocates including social workers who want social security to stay solvent and be there.
T
T or f? Under the Reagon administration, there was established a bipartisan commission rescue plan, and the result was that Democrats accepted a six month delay in the annual cost of living adjustment. There was increase in retirement age, Republicans accepted a faster than planned-rise in payroll taxes. There were compromises under Reagon in terms of rescuing and saving social security.
T
T or ? Under Bush there was a focus on privatizing social security, and the private plan, and privetization where 4% could be diverted, and the maximum was $1,000. Republicans weren’t enthusiastic and democrats opposed.
T
T or f? If people had indeed put a lot of money into a private plan, they would have been worse off than having social security. Other countries like Chile did this and tried to have a privatization plan where people could place retirement income but it did not work out.
T
T or f? Privatizing social security, saying that the private market is going to really take care of somebody’s retirement investments is very dubious (suspect/doesn’t work out) .
T
T or f? In 2010, Simpson’s Bowles Commission was another Bipartisan established in Congress to look at how to establish social security, and they came out with recommendations. They’d change the way the cost of living adjustment was indexed, make it reliable, valid, raise the retirement age to 68 by 2050, reduce benefits to higher earners, and increase for lower earners, (supporting lower earners), and increasing taxable minimum to 90% of earnings by 2050. Final report released in 2010, but didn’t have the support of enough members to be approved; Divisiveness meant Congress wouldn’t touch it. Some of the problems were
T
T or f? In contrast to universal income support programs, we have selective income support programs. Selective programs are means tested, focus on specific groups of people, specific income levels, they are discretionary spending, means the government is not obligated to pay them. Unlike social security which is an entitlement which the government is obligated to fulfill or pay, SSI or TANF or general assistance, there is not an actual obligation. They depend on appropriations every year by Congress to cover them.
T
