SOCIOL Final Flashcards Chapter 11
Inequality
The unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities
Big Men
Someone who, whether because of physical strength or cunning, is able to hoard desirable goods and accumulate more status and power within the tribe or community.
Primitive Communism
Survival required community members to work together and share whatever they had.
Colonialism
The conquering and control of foreign lands by the rich countries of Western Europe.
Feudalism
Feudalism refers to an economic system based on agriculture in which those who own land (landlords) are entitled to receive the products of the laborers.
The serfs
The laborers in Feudalism
The welfare state
The bundle of programs that provide social insurance and social assistance for people falling into one or another category of attributes (such as old age, disability, or poverty). The most important types of welfare-state programs are old-age pensions (known in the United States as Social Security), health insurance programs, unemployment insurance, job training programs, and general welfare assistance for the very poor.
High-end inequality
The process by which the very wealthiest individuals and families have been able to use their surplus income and wealth to acquire even more wealth.
Income
Refers to the receipt of money or goods over a particular accounting period (such as hourly, weekly, monthly, or yearly).
Consumption
How much an individual or family actually consumes in a month or a year, which may not directly correspond to their income if they are able to borrow money.
Wealth
Net value of assets (assets minus debts)
Net Financial Assets
These include the total value of savings, investments, retirement accounts, and other convertible assets (less outstanding debts).
Middle Class
A group of people who occupy the middle positions in terms of income and status in an economic system.
Class
Used to identify groups of people in similar social and economic positions.
What are the 4 factors that make up a class ?
1) Conflicting economic interests with other classes
2) Share similar life chances
3) Similar attitudes
4) Have the potential to engage in collective action
Life chances
An individual’s long-term possibilities and potential, including future income and opportunities, given their current attributes such as level of education, social networks, and possession of marketable skills or assets.
Class Analysis
The sociological study of how, when, and to what extent classes exist in any society at any point in time, and how these classes have changed over-time.
What did marx believe about class ?
Marx’s concept of class built on the idea that as a result of its economic system, every society has a single, critical division between two classes (one dominant, one subordinate), based on their economic position.
Socioeconomic status
The basic premise of the SES approach is that by combining a number of different attributes of any individual, we can properly place him or her in relation to others and assign him or her to a class; someone scoring high on all three dimensions (income, education, occupation) is “high SES,” someone scoring low on all three is “low SES,” and everyone else is somewhere in the middle (or “middle SES”).
The Erikson–Goldthorpe scheme
Occupation-based approach that divides different occupations into a small group of distinct classes that have similar kinds of life chances, organizations, and (less often) social and political viewpoints.
Salariat/Service Class
Professionals, managers, and administrators; higher grade technicians; supervisors of nonmanual workers
Routine Nonmanual Workers
Nonsupervisorial employees in administration and commerce positions; sales workers; secretaries, clerks, and other rank-and-file white-collar workers
Petty Bourgeoisie/Self-Employed
Business owners (other than farm), self-employed workers and consultants, artisans
Farm Owners
Farmers and ranchers (landowners)
Skilled Workers and Supervisors
Skilled manual workers, supervisors of manual workers (foremen), lower grade technicians/repairmen
Nonskilled Workers
Semi- and unskilled manual workers
Farm Laborers
Farm and ranch employees
What are the three ways in which we distinguish classes ?
1) Income
2) SES
3)Occupation
Egalitarian society
The income share of each family (or household) is the same.
What are the four factors that offer reasons as to why inequality is growing ?
1) Technology
2) The decline of manufacturing
3) Globalization
4) Government Policies
College wage premium
Having a college degree or more pays off more than ever before
Deindustrialization
Steady decline in industrial or manufacturing jobs.
Globalization
There is a growing permeability of national borders and the increase in flows of goods, services, and even people across national borders.
Offshoring
When manufacturing companies move production operations to another country.
What is the difference between outsourcing and offshoring ?
Outsourcing occurs when a company contracts a specific process out to a third party. Offshoring happens when businesses send in-house jobs overseas.
On versus off shore *
Sweatshop conditions
Workplaces that are characterized by extremely low wages and poor or unsafe working conditions and that in some cases even employ children.
What are the two factors related to government policies that drive inequality ?
1) Policies related to taxes
2) The minimum wage
Progressive tax system
One in which tax rates are higher on richer people than poorer people, with the idea being that it is fairer to ask those who can afford to pay more to do so.
Minimum wage
The lowest amount an employer can legally pay a worker
Inequality of opportunity
The ways in which opportunities for children and young adults to maximize their potential may be very unequal.
Social mobility
The movement of individuals from one social position into another
Intergenerational social mobility
A measure of the extent to which parents and their children have similar or different social and economic positions in adulthood
Upward mobility
an individual’s class is higher than that of their parents.
Downward mobility
an individual’s class is lower than that of their parents.
High-mobility society
There is relatively little connection between parents’ and children’s place in life.
Low-mobility society
There is a relatively close connection between parents and their children’s positions when children reach adulthood.
Association
the relationship between two variables
Perfect mobility
An association of zero- the parent income does not connect to the child income.
Perfect immobility
An association of one- the parent/child income is fully determined by parent.
Labor market
the process by which employers hire individual workers.
Poverty Line
The minimum income necessary to afford basic necessities
Absolute poverty
The minimum amount of income necessary to meet basic needs but does not adjust for changes in living standards, the latter being an important shortcoming.
Relative poverty
Relative poverty is most commonly defined as those families with incomes below 50percent of the median income; accounts for living standards.
Factors that increase the chance of someone falling into poverty
Education, employment status, minority status, age, and family structure.
feminization of poverty
highlights the difficulties of complementing the roles of primary caregiver and provider on a single income.
Working poor
People who cannot make enough income to be free from poverty even if, as many do, they work part or full-time jobs.
Individualist perspective on poverty
(1) The role of governmental policies in discouraging the poor from working
(2) the importance of the decline in two-parent (generally male–female) families
Structural perspective on poverty
A structuralist would begin by pointing to all of the social and economic forces that impact our lives and argue that these forces are the primary explanations for poverty.
“Market” Income
What is received just from earnings
“Disposable” or usable income
What families have to spend after taking taxes and government programs into account, which can significantly alter their household incomes.
The American Families Plan
Provides income and other benefits sufficient to lift over half of all poor children out of poverty.
Food Insecurity
A concept that refers to any family that cannot provide adequate food for each member every day
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
Conducts an annual survey to estimate the homeless population
“Luxury fever”
We are never fully satisfied with what we have when we hear or read about the lives of the rich.
Economic Restructuring
The shift in major urban areas moving from an economy based on industry to one based on a service-sector economy.
