Ch. 2 Poverty and Wealth questions

Understand the significance of social class & social stratification in terms of dividing people, and determining social rewards.

Ideas such as top getting the most income while bottom percentiles recieving the lower incomes

Understand the distinction between wealth & income, and the distribution of each within the United States.

Income being salary/wages and other sources of money and wealth being the assets minus debts

Who is most likely to be poor and who is most likely to be rich, in the U.S.?

Latino and African americans more likely to be poor, white and asian more likely to be richer.

Understand some of the major problems linked to poverty.

Poor health, homelessness, substandard housing, limited schooling, crime/punishment.

Understand the (3) three characteristics of government welfare programs.

1. benefit people or activities as worthy

2. benefit most of the usa

3. reduce income inequality but barely

What are some common perceptions & misconceptions about welfare ?

that they help lower income people

Understand the sociological theories in relationship to poverty (Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism)

Functional: social pathology,

Conflict: social darwinism

Symbolic: blaming the victim

Be familiar with the following theories: feminist theory, intersection theory,
multicultural theory, Marxist economic theory.

feminist theory: trend of female getting less money than male

intersection: the investigation of the interplay race, class, and gender, often resulting in multiple dimensions of disadvantage

culticultural theory: disadvantage of being of 2+ minority groups

Understand the politics of income inequality ( conservative & liberal viewpoints)

Conservatives believe that poverty is due to personal problems

Liberal: believe its fault of society.