Sociology ch7: Economic Inequality

Capital & Economic Capital

Capital: resources we use to get things we want and need

Economic Capital: financial resources that are/ can be converted into money

Income

flow of money that comes into a household from employers, owning a business, state benefits, rents on properties, and so on (what a person owns)

Wealth

people's savings and assets, minus their liabilities; typically distributed unevenly in United States

Economic elite

minority of people who control a disproportionate amount of wealth

Inequality

people are not positioned equally. unequal treatment or perception of individuals wholly or partly due to their gender, race, ethnicity, or other quality

Inequity

Unfair difference in the distribution or allocation of a resource

Systems of stratification

class, caste, feudal

Social mobility

opportunity to move up or down in the economic hierarchy

Industrialization and class system

- class system came from industrialization

- industrialization drew people out of rural communities, where they worked in small shops and on farms, into cities, where they worked in factories and mines

Living Wage

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

- a turn from free market capitalism to a welfare capitalism

Capitalism

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

Proletariat

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

Bourgeoise

class of people who employ the workers

Means of production

resources that can be used to create wealth

Labor

work people can do with their bodies and minds

Marx and Engel on wage labor

- they thought it changed the relationship workers had to their work

- working for others in large numbers made labor less meaningful to members of proletariat

Alienation

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

Class consciousness

understanding that members of a social class share economic interests

Socialism

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

capitalist system with little or no government regulation

Labor unions

associations that organize workers so they can negotiate with there employers as a group instead of individuals (my boi cesar chavez)

Social safety net

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

Welfare capitalism

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

Precariat

new class of workers who live economically precarious lives

Working poor

people in the labor force who earn poverty-level wages

Protestant work ethic

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

Impact on safety net:

- will encourage people to stay lazy, untrustworthy, greedy, and poor

Glass ceiling

restricts upward mobility

Glass floor

restricts downward mobility

Wealth gaps

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