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Lecture Five

This lecture delves into the increasing inequality in the U.S. from 1979 to 2005, highlighting how the wealth of the top 5% has surged while the bottom 40% has seen their net worth halved. It explores social stratification, barriers to social mobility, and the economic challenges faced by the working poor, particularly women and minorities. The discussion also covers the nature of poverty, its psychological and structural causes, and the alarming statistics regarding poverty rates among different demographics, emphasizing the urgent need for policy reforms to address these disparities.

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Lecture Five

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  1. Lecture Five Poverty and Inequality in the US: The Working Poor

  2. Increasing Inequality • Between 1979 and 2005, the top 5% of American families saw their real incomes increase by 81%, while the net worth of the bottom 40% of American households fell by half • Ratio of CEO-worker pay: • 2005 was 262 to 1 • 1965 it was 24 to 1

  3. We are all richer…

  4. Share of the Income 2006

  5. Stratification • Social Stratification: hierarchical classification of society’s members based on • Resources • Power • Authority • Prestige • Important to understand stratification because: • Determines access to resources and rewards in society • Life experiences and opportunities

  6. US: Mixed-class System • Even though we believe that we are pure class system, we are a mixed class system • both ascribed and achieved characteristics determine class position • Ascribed: race, gender, immigrant status, geography, sexual orientation • Achieved: education, initiative, determination, intelligence

  7. Opportunity Structure Wealth High Income Good Neighborhood Good Schools Good Jobs Access to Health Care → → → → ↑ ↓ → → → →

  8. What does social mobility look like? • http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html

  9. Barriers to Mobility? • Social Exclusion: cut off from mechanisms that allow social mobility in a society • Neighborhood/Residential • Education • Occupation • Culture

  10. Poverty: How do we explain it? • “As a culture, the United States is not quite sure about the causes of poverty, and therefore is uncertain about the solutions” • “Culture of Poverty” • Individuals are responsible for their own culture and socializing their children into poverty • “American Anti-Myth” (macro-structural) Poverty is produced by the unequal structures in society • Inequalities in opportunity

  11. Poverty • Poverty: Official definition of poverty was developed in 1964 and is based on food consumption as 1/3 of household costs • Absolute – physical deprivation • Relative – deficiency relative to the population as a whole • What are the main expenditures for households today?

  12. Who is most likely to be in Poverty? • 58% of Americans will live poverty for at least 1 year • 1 in 3 will experience extreme poverty for at least one year • 27% will experience poverty before age 30 • What creates this high risk for Americans? • Time – life stages, such as divorce and other unanticipated events • Safety Net – very few social services to help people through rough stages • and Labor Market – not enough good paying jobs

  13. Feminization of Poverty • Women are disproportionately represented among the poor • More likely to be in low-pay service jobs • Women still make $0.76 for every man’s dollar • 42% of female-headed households are in poverty, compared to 9% of two-parent families • Children are more likely to live in poverty than adults – 35% of US poor are children

  14. The Color of Poverty • Higher rates of poverty among non-whites • White- 8% • Black – 25% • Hispanic – 22% • American Indian – 25% • Highest rate of poverty is among children in single-parent households headed by Hispanic women – 48% are in poverty

  15. Black/White Wealth Gap • Wealth is the engine of social mobility • Location, education, employment • Average white family has a net worth 7 times that of the average Black family • This gap has grown since the 1960’s • The wealth gap accounts for many of the racial inequities • Racial disparities almost disappear when economic resources are equal

  16. Working Poor or the Nearly Poor • Working Poor: workers in jobs at 27 weeks of the year that are less secure, low-paying, and deskilled • In 2005, 36.8% of the poor worked and 11.4% worked full-time • Over 5% of the population are ‘working poor,’ but majority are non-white, female, and immigrant

  17. Why so many working poor? • Economic restructuring in the post-industrial society • High skill, high tech, high wage jobs versus • Low skill, low tech, low wage jobs • Increasing gap between the rich and poor and growing economic inequality • Zero-sum • Welfare to work (1996) pushed many poor (primarily women) into low paying, dead-end jobs

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