Social Class, Inequality, & Poverty

Question 1

a system that puts categories of people into a hierarchy

Answer 1

stratification

Question 2

a group of individuals who share a similar economic position based on income, wealth, education, and occupation

Answer 2

social class

Question 3

the total amount of money someone earns each year

Answer 3

income

Question 4

the total amount of money that a person has or could have if they sold off all their assets

Answer 4

wealth

Question 5

made up of the capitalist class and the upper-middle class

Answer 5

privileged class

Question 6

(commonly known as the top 1%) makes money from the things they own: businesses, real estate, stocks, and bonds

Answer 6

capitalist class

Question 7

making up about 14% of the population, these well-educated individuals rely on their high incomes from jobs to catapult them into this category

Answer 7

upper-middle class

Question 8

although relatively small in size, this group includes individuals whose annual incomes are well into the six-figure range

Answer 8

working rich

Question 9

here we have about 60% of the population, evenly split between the middle class and the working class

Answer 9

majority classes

Question 10

likely to have a high school diploma and some college experience (an increasing number even have a bachelor’s degree). they work as teachers, nurses, master craftspeople (plumbers, electricians, carpenters), and lower-level managers

Answer 10

middle class

Question 11

these individuals have probably completed high school or a trade school; they typically work as office support (secretaries and administrative assistants), retail sales workers, factory workers, or low-paid craftspeople

Answer 11

working class

Question 12

making up about one-quarter of the US population, this group includes the working poor (15%) and the underclass (10%). both have some education, but most do not have more than a high school diploma

Answer 12

lower class

Question 13

typically employed in insecure and low-wage jobs such as janitorial and cleaning services, manual labor, landscaping, restaurant support (fast food, wait staff, line cooks), and other service industries

Answer 13

working poor

Question 14

moving from an ascribed social class position to a new achieved social class position

Answer 14

social mobility

Question 15

occurs when someone moves from a lower social class position to a higher one

Answer 15

upward mobility

Question 16

dropping into a lower social class

Answer 16

downward mobility

Question 17

built up benefits and resources

Answer 17

cumulative advantages

Question 18

the difference in accumulated wealth between different races and ethnicities

Answer 18

racial wealth gap

Question 19

a system where personal responsibility and individual effort are the sole determinants of success

Answer 19

meritocracy

Question 20

a statistical measure that looks at how family income is distributed in a country to compare inequality

Answer 20

GINI index

Question 21

people without access to the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, and clothing

Answer 21

absolute poverty

Question 22

establishes the minimum income level that the federal government says is required to buy the basic necessities of life

Answer 22

poverty threshold/poverty line

Question 23

this measure takes into account the relative economic status of people in a society by looking at how income is distributed; those in the lowest income brackets would be considered poor in comparison to others in their society

Answer 23

relative poverty

Question 24

if you are in a household headed by a single mother, you are much more likely to be poor than those in married-couple or single-father families

Answer 24

household type

Question 25

there is a high rate of poverty among adults who have not completed high school.

Answer 25

education

Question 26

those with no income are substantially more likely to be poor than are those who earn even low incomes.

Answer 26

paid work

Question 27

for people aged 18 to 64 with a disability, the 2020 poverty rate was 25%, which amounted to more than 3 million people living in poverty.

Answer 27

disability status

Question 28

the poverty rate is approximately two times higher for African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans than it is for whites and Asian Americans

Answer 28

race

Question 29

The South has the highest poverty rate, while the Northeast has the lowest

Answer 29

region

Question 30

Census tracts where at least 40% of the population is poor

Answer 30

high-poverty neighborhoods

Question 31

In 2020, 11.6 million children (those under 18 years old) lived in poverty; children represented 31.2% of all people in poverty.[

Answer 31

child poverty

Question 32

people who spent at least 27 weeks (half of the last year) in the labor force but whose incomes still fell below the official poverty level

Answer 32

working poor

Question 33

lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence

Answer 33

homelessness

Question 34

in late January, communities across the country count the number of homeless people living in emergency shelters, transitional housing, or on the street

Answer 34

point-in-time count

Question 35

people staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, or safe havens

Answer 35

sheltered homeless

Question 36

people with a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping space, such as the streets, vehicles, or parks

Answer 36

unsheltered homelessness

Question 37

someone with a disability who has a) been continuously homeless for a year or more or b) has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years where the combined length of the homeless episodes is at least 12 months

Answer 37

Chronically homeless individual