Sociology Chapter 7: Economic Inequality

Capital

The resources we use to get things we want and need.

Economic capital

Financial resources that are or can be converted into money.

Income

refers to steady sources of money

Wealth

refers to money sitting in the bank and ownership of economic assets, minus debts

To describe the financial well-being of the American people, sociologists generally use one of three

measures of central tendency

Median

The middle value among a set of numbers arranged from lowest to highest.

Mean

The sum of all values divided by the number of values.

Mode

The value among a range of values that occurs most often.

Economic elite

the minority of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth

In caste systems

people stayed in the stratified layer of society they were born into.

In the feudal systems

rich and powerful individuals born into nobility reigned over a peasant class.

Under enslavement systems

an economic elite was allowed to legally own a class of humans and exploit them for their labor.

Social mobility

Opportunity to move up or down in the economic hierarchy.

Class systems

sort people into different positions in an economic hierarchy but also allow them to rise or fall.

Wage

Cash payments given to workers in exchange for their labor.

Capitalism

An economic system based on private ownership of the resources used to create wealth and the right of individuals to personally profit.

Proletariat

A class of people who are employed by others and work for a wage

Bourgeoise

A class of people who employ the workers

Means of production

Resources that can be used to create wealth

Labor

The work people can do with their bodies and minds.

Alienation

The feeling of dissatisfaction and disconnection from the fruits of one's labor

Crisis of capitalism

A coming catastrophic implosion from which capitalism would never recover.

Class consciousness

An understanding that members of a social class share economic interests.

Socialism

An economic system based on shared ownership of the resources used to create wealth that is then distributed by governments for the enrichment of all.

Free market capitalism

A capitalist system with little or no government regulation.

Labor unions

Associations that organize workers so they can negotiate with their employers as a group instead of as individuals.

Social safety net

A patchwork of programs intended to ensure that the most economically vulnerable do not go without basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter.

Living wage

an income that allows full-time workers to afford their basic needs.

Welfare capitalism

A capitalist economic system with some socialist policy aimed at distributing the profits of capitalism more evenly across the population.

Contradictory class locations

Positions in the economy that are in some ways like the proletariat and in other ways like the bourgeoise.

Service and information economy

An economy centered on jobs in which workers provide services or work with information.

Precariat

A new class of workers who live economically precarious lives

free riders

people who reap the benefits without contributing

Working poor

People in the labor force who earn poverty-level wages.

Protestant work ethic

The idea that one's character can and should be measured by one's dedication to paid work.

Glass ceiling

An invisible barrier that restricts upward mobility.

Glass floor

An invisible barrier that restricts downward mobility

Wealth gaps

Differences in the amount of money and economic assets owned by people from different social identity groups.

Wage gaps

Differences between the hourly earnings of different social identity groups.

Colorism

Prejudice against and discrimination toward people with dark skin compared to those with light skin, regardless of race

Legitimation

A process by which a potentially controversial social fact is made acceptable

Financial resources that are or can be converted into money is also known as

economic capital

Which of the following is not a measure of central tendency?

standard deviation

In the ________, rich and powerful individuals born into nobility reigned over a peasant class

feudal systems

Positions in the economy that are in some ways like the proletariat and in other ways like the bourgeoise caste systems are known as

contradictory class locations

Many commentators are describing the United States' current economic condition as the

New Gilded Age