Gans' Uses of Poverty

Question 1

The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All is made by

Answer 1

Herbert Gans, 1971

Question 2

Gans took note of Robert Merton’s concept of

Answer 2

“Manifest”, “Latent”, and “Dysfunctions.”

Question 3

intended function of social policies, processes, or actions, to affect benefits

Answer 3

Manifest

Question 4

Ex: The promotion of contraceptives helps couples manage their family size.

Answer 4

Manifest

Question 5

not consciously intended but produces benefits.

Answer 5

Latent

Question 6

Ex: The promotion of contraceptives helps prevent mortalities in unassisted abortions.

Answer 6

Latent

Question 7

a harmful unintended outcome.

Answer 7

Dysfunction

Question 8

Ex: The promotion of contraceptives leads to the surge of early engagement of young people to sexual activities, at least from the conservative standpoint.

Answer 8

Dysfunction

Question 9

TRUE OR FALSE

Gans justifies and promotes poverty, he outlines the poverty’s latent function as a sociologist.

Answer 9

FALSE

Question 10

TRUE OR FALSE

Gans enumerated the observed consequences of poverty (having poor) to other socio-economic interest groups or population aggregates.

Answer 10

TRUE

Question 11

By learning the consequences of latent functions, it may:

Answer 11

offer an understanding of why some social phenomena persist in our society.

Question 12

TRUE OR FALSE

The existence of poverty ensures that society’s “dirty work” will be done is one function of poverty.

Answer 12

TRUE

Question 13

Ex: Garbage pickers or trash collectors usually take the job forced by poverty.

Answer 13

The existence of poverty ensures that society’s “dirty work” will be done.

Question 14

the poor subsidize the lucrative living and activities of the rich because of this.

Answer 14

Because the poor are required to work at lower wages, they subsidize activities that benefit the upper class.

Question 15

poverty unintentionally generates jobs because there must be people who should look after the well-being of the poor.

Answer 15

Poverty creates jobs that serve or “service” the poor or protect the rest of society from them.

Question 16

The poor serve as consumers of “substandard” items (or of “poor services”).

Answer 16

The poor buy goods others do not want and thus prolong the economic usefulness of such goods.

Question 17

The poor are found to be patronizing substandard medicines.

Answer 17

The poor buy goods others do not want and thus prolong the economic usefulness of such goods.

Question 18

The poor can be used to justify social norms, most especially norms that benefit those that promote them.

Answer 18

The poor can be identified and punished as alleged or real deviants in order to uphold the legitimacy of conventional norms.

Question 19

The rich demonize the poor as lazy, and sometimes associate their conditions to that laziness.

Answer 19

The poor can be identified and punished as alleged or real deviants in order to uphold the legitimacy of conventional norms.

Question 20

It is in their intent to uphold hard work as a norm because if people are hardworking, it translates to _______.

Answer 20

profit

Question 21

There seems to be an assumption that the poor engage in risky and deviant behaviors.

Answer 21

Poor can be identified as a group which participates more in uninhibited sexual, alcoholic, and narcotic behavior.

Question 22

many crimes are almost automatically associated with people from economically depressed areas. This contributes to the “good image” of the affluent.

Answer 22

Poor can be identified as a group which participates more in uninhibited sexual, alcoholic, and narcotic behavior.