Social Inequality Flashcards
INCOME
- Wages and salaries from paid jobs
* Any unearned money from investments
SOCIAL CLASS
A large group of people who occupy a similar economic position in the wider society (wealth, power, prestige)
WEALTH
All assets which individuals own
Herbert J. Gans Uses of the Underclass in America
Poverty is good for you, as long as you are not among the poor
Microsocial Funtions of the Undeserving Poor (2)
Risk Reduction
Scapegoating & Displacement
Economic Functions of the Undeserving Poor (3)
Economic Banishment and the reserve army of labor
Supplying Illegal Goods
Job Creation
Normative Functions of the Undeserving Poor (3)
Moral Legitimation
Norm Reinforcement
Supplying Popular Culture Villains
Political Functions of the Undeserving Poor (3)
Institutional Scapegoating
Conservative Power Shifting
Spatial Purification
Macrosocial Functions of the Undeserving Poor (2)
Reproduction of stigma and the stigmatized
Extermination of the surplus
ABSOLUTE POVERTY
Minimum income level below which individuals or families find it difficult to subsist
RELATIVE POVERTY
Inadequate income compared to average standard of living of the entire population
PERCENTAGE of population IN POVERTY
Approx. 15%
POVERTY THRESHOLD
- An income equal to 3X the cost of a minimum pod diet in 1963
- Adjusted for family size, composition, and age of householder
FAMILY
Persons living together who are related by blood, adoption, or marriage
THE WORKING POOR
- People who work, but whose earning are not high enough to lift them above poverty
- About 25% of those in poverty