Transcript Chapter 6 Poverty This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law.

Chapter 6
Poverty
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Myth or Fact?

Both the poor and
the affluent are a
drain on the treasury
and both pay to
support it.
Fact

Receiving welfare
encourages women to
have more children, to
leave their husbands
and to avoid work.
Myth
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Poverty and Unemployment


Unemployment can
lead some people to
desperation.
Timothy Bowers
committed a bank
robbery because he
couldn’t find a job and
wanted to be in prison
until he was old enough
to collect Social
Security.
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Defining Poverty

Poverty is the lack of resources necessary
for material well-being: food, water, housing,
land, and health care.

Absolute poverty is the lack of resources
that leads to hunger and physical deprivation.

Relative poverty refers to a deficiency in
material and economic resources compared
with some other population.
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Extent of Poverty in the U.S.

In 2008 in the U.S.





40 million people,
or 1 in 8 citizens,
or 13.2% of the population,
were living in poverty
The poorest 20% of households receive
less than 4% of the total income while the
wealthiest 20% receive 50%.
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Who are the poor?



Racial and Ethnic Minorities
 Most of the poor in the U.S. are white, while
nonwhites are disproportionately more likely to be
poor than are whites.
Children
 Thirty five percent of the poor are children under
the age of eighteen.
The Elderly
 Poverty is relatively low among the elderly: It is
slightly lower than among non-elderly adults.
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Who are the poor?

Women


Central City and Rural Dwellers


A growing number of women are among the
poor, which has been called the feminization of
poverty.
Poverty tends to be concentrated in certain
places such as central-city and rural areas.
The Disabled

As many as one-third of the poor suffer from
severe physical disabilities.
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Poverty and Employment

The Working Poor


Despite common misconceptions, many
adults below the official poverty line actually
work for a living, often at low-paying or parttime work.
The Unemployed

The unemployed receive unemployment
benefits for a time, but these are exhausted
eventually.
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Homelessness

Causes of homelessness can be found in
recent social trends, such as





the decline in the number of industrial jobs that
pay a living wage,
the flight of jobs from the cities where people
live,
the contraction of social welfare,
increases in poverty, and
the decline in the amount of low-cost housing.
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The Functionalist Perspective

The Stratification System


Stratification exists because it makes some
useful contribution to the ongoing maintenance
of society.
Davis and Moore argue
All societies must ensure that people will fill
essential positions and perform important tasks.
 Some positions are more important or more difficult
than others.
 The stratification system serves to motivate people
to occupy and work hard at all of these essential
positions.

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The Functionalist Perspective

The Economy


Normal and sometimes desirable changes in
the economy affect the level of poverty, such
as inflation and technological innovation.
These kinds of changes are necessary for a
healthy economy but their cumulative impact
is to increase rates of unemployment and
poverty, which is called structural
unemployment.
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The Functionalist Perspective

Gans (1994) suggests that there are benefits to
society from poverty





ensuring that society’s “dirty work” will be done
subsidizing many of the activities of the affluent
creating jobs for people who serve the poor
creating a market for inferior goods
using the poor as symbols of the “underdog”
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The Conflict Perspective

Marx viewed society as involving constant
struggle between social classes over scarce
resources.


The affluent are merely using the resources
available to protect their own position.
Once people become successful they tend
to pass on their success to their children
and this makes it more difficult for people on
the bottom to move up.
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The Interactionist Perspective
and Cultural Analysis

The cultural analysis of poverty focuses
on the psychological orientations that may
emerge among groups of people who live
under conditions of poverty.


Some people who live in poverty develop a
cultural orientation that helps them adapt to
their life circumstances in a way that enables
them to feel good.
Criticisms of this perspective include
“blaming the victim” and its limited
applicability.
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Future Prospects

Approaches to reducing poverty include

Encouraging full employment


A situation in which everyone or nearly everyone
who wants to work can find a job
Educating and training the poor to compete
effectively in the job market
Early childhood interventions include Head Start
 Jobs programs include on-the-job training and
temporary public service jobs

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Future Prospects

Providing income maintenance programs

Social insurance programs
Social Security
 Medicare


Public assistance programs
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
 Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
 General Assistance (GA)
 Medicaid
 Noncash Benefits

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Theories of Poverty
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Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism type theories argue that the poor,
criminals, and others at the bottom of the stratification
system are either biologically inferior or inferior due to
character.

Essentially, the poor are poor because they are lazy,
waste their time and money, and simply do not have
the self-control to succeed.

There are biological factors that predispose
individuals to live in poverty.

The emphasis is on the individual characteristics of
the poor rather than the conditions of poverty.
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Social Darwinism

Richard Herrnstein wrote The Bell Curve in
1994, which directly argued for a perspective
of poverty very much in line with Social
Darwinism.

Herrnstein argued that there is a direct
correlation between one's cognitive ability
(as measured by IQ scores) and their
position in the stratification system.
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Social Darwinism

Biological, rather than social, factors
determine one's cognitive ability.

Intelligence and not social class is the most
accurate predictor of success.

The current stratification system is a direct
result of cognitive ability rather than social
class.
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Social Darwinism Critique

An inaccurate focus on the characteristics of
the poor rather than the causes of poverty.

Many of the poor have lower IQ scores
because they are poor and not the other
way around.

Children with anemia and iron deficiency
due to hunger are on the average 25
percent behind other children in mental
development.
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Social Darwinism Critique

A study of 1023 elementary school
children found that test scores of these
hungry children rose dramatically after
they were provided breakfast at school
(Tufts University Center on Hunger,
Poverty and Nutrition Policy).
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Culture of Poverty

Oscar Lewis (1914-1970), a social
anthropologist, is the most noted theorist in
this area.

Lewis attempt to show the existence of
culture of poverty that produces personality
and value differences among the poor.

In other words, the propensity to be poor is
acquired in the process of primary
socialization.
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Culture of Poverty-Five Major
points

First Point:

The conditions of poverty present the
poor with unique problems in living when
compared tot he non-poor
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Culture of Poverty-Five Major
points

Second Point:

In order to cope with these problems, the
poor develop a unique lifestyle
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Culture of Poverty-Five Major
points

Third Point:

Through the collective interaction by the
poor, and isolation from the non-poor, the
unique life style becomes a common
characteristic of the poor, producing
common values, attitudes, and behavior
(a subculture is developed)
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Culture of Poverty-Five Major points

Forth Point:

The characteristics of this subculture become
relatively independent from the social
conditions that helped to create it.

The subculture becomes institutionalized
and self-perpetuating

The children are socialized into this culture
of poverty
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Culture of Poverty-Five Major points

Fifth Point:

Because this process of socialization shape
the basic character and personality traits of
those raised in poverty those traits are
maintained even in the face of opportunity to
become non-poor

Hence, poverty remains
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A Structural View of Poverty

A structural view of poverty argues that poverty can only
be understood and explained with reference to political
and economic characteristics of society rather than any
characteristics of the poor.

This theory does not neglect the characteristics of the
poor; it is just not the primary focus.

As it is with the working class, middle class, and
upper class, the individual characteristics are
secondary to the structural situation.
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A Structural View of Poverty

The occupational structure

The poor are at the bottom of the occupational
structure with few skills or only skills that can be
easily learned by anyone.

The large number of people competing for such
jobs reduces the chances for secure jobs and
reduces the wages when the jobs are found.

The poor are most affected by the business cycles
of boom and bust creating cycles of employment
and unemployment.
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A Structural View of Poverty

The property structure

The poor own very little if anything, which makes
them dependent upon others for their job and
livelihood

This lack of property or capital means that the
poor are left without resources when employment
comes to an end

When some Native Americans learned to use
property to their advantage, the economic
situation improved. However, they first had to
have the property as a resource
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A Structural View of Poverty

The authority structure

The poor are almost exclusively located at the
bottom of the economic or occupational authority
structure

Politically, the poor can be considered the most
powerless of classes

When the poor have had political influence, it was
often gained outside the normal channels of
political influence
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