SOC 125 Midterm 2

normative reasons

some sorts of inequality are almost indistinguishable from essentially harmless and inoffensive difference. These are to be greeted with understanding, even appreciation. Others, however, see unfair . They violate what increasingly appear to be genetically wired human notions of decent treatment of others. And many of these seem socially unjust

Explanatory reasons

Inequality, perhaps especially socially unjust inequality, has consequences. To understand a society, you want to understand what those consequences are, what precisely produces them, why they're reproduced, and what might be done about them

inequality is unjust when...

a. the inequality is unfair and b. something could in priciple be done to eliminate the unfairness

checklist for alternatives

desirability, feasibility, and achievability

desirability

if this worked, would things be better for you/us

feasibility

would this really "work". Is it reproducible?

achievability

can we get there from here? who's going to do the work needed for that?

rhetoric of reaction

opposition to remedies including: futility, perversity, and jeopardy

futility

what's suggested won't have any impact

perversity

what's suggested will make things worse

jeopardy

what's suggested will threaten something else of great value

misleading assumptions of reform possibility

synergy, imminent danger, right side of history

synergy

that its elements will work positive together

imminent danger

that we MUST do something, or race castastrophe

ride side of history

that progress, of the kind called for, is baked into social forces

Fair play

moral judgement about procedures not outcomes, equal playing field, directed toward future, not wrongs of the past
-under fair play, high inequality is fair as long as its the result of natural competition with "equal opportunity"

fair share

moral judgement about outcomes/initial conditions not just procedures
-fairness means everyone is entitled to a share of society's resources sufficient to live a dignified, flourishing life (to be active in society and able to exercise and develop one's talents)

Normative argument - inequality

statements based on opinions about what should happen. They are subjective rather than objective because they involve value judgment about what is right and what is wrong
-fairness is 1 value, others could trump like respect for rights to property, rights of parents, freedom of those from whom privilege may be taken

pragmatic argument

focuses on practical consequences, not morality

pragmatic arguments - inequality

inequality -> incentives -> people work harder -> prosperity,
which ultimately benefits the poor

pragmatic argument for equality

High Inequality -> resentment and conflict -> erodes
cooperation and community -> lowers productivity -> reduces
prosperity

justice

fair behavior or treatment

injustice

we mean there is an inequality that is unfair and that could be remedied if our social institutions were different

ought implies can

the principle according to which an agent has a moral obligation to perform a certain action only if it is possible for him or her to perform it

race

is race as a symbolic category, based on phenotype or
ancestry and constructed according to specific social and
historical contexts, that is commonly misrecognized as a
natural one

racism

is a set of beliefs and social practices in which people
are treated differently and accorded advantages and
disadvantages on the basis of culturally-defined racial
classifications.

asset

a useful or valuable quality

wealth

the state of being rich and affluent; having a plentiful supply of material goods and money

income inequality

how unevenly income is distributed throughout a population - use Gini to measure

positional inequality

inequalities defined by the relationship between positions or roles within an institution: for example, managers and workers within firms

status inequality

inequalities in the privileges, opportunities, rewards accorded to personal attributes of individuals race, gender, ethnicity, age, education, income

meritocratic sources of inequality

which power is held by people selected according to merit, favoritism, Ex. qualifications, education,

equality of opportunity

fair play, everyone on an even playing field, fair rules/procedures

capacities approach to equal opportunity

focus on peoples access and tools to improve their lives than giving them cash, teach a man to fish and he will be fed for a lifetime

bottom billion

Countries suffering from extreme poverty, overlooked and undervalued

welfare

a range of government programs that provide financial or other aid to individuals or groups who cannot support themselves

corporate welfare

a government's bestowal of money grants, TAX BREAKS, or other special favorable treatment for corporations

tax expenditures

mortgage deductions, earned income tax credit for working poor, tax deductions for business expenses

family wage

male breadwinner earning can take care of the whole family, never true for poor families

Brown v Board of Education

ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality

discrimination

A form of racism in which persons are accorded full citizenship rights, but in various ways face systematic private discrimination in different contexts

statistical discrimination

A situation in which a judgment is made about an individual on the basis of beliefs about the average characteristics of member of the social category they belong to rather than the characteristics of the specific individual.

institutional discrimination

Discriminatory policies and practices favorable to a dominant group and unfavorable to another group that are systematically embedded in the existing structure of society in the form of norms

living wage

the amount by working 40 hours you should be able to afford an apartment and groceries

poverty

the state of lacking the material and social resources an individual requires to live a healthy life

poverty line

to define an income level above which it is possible to have adequate nutrition, housing, clothing, and other basic necessities

absolute poverty

idea that you can measure poverty by picking a salary and everyone below that line is in poverty how much income do you have

relative poverty

percentage of average income how much income do you have relative to everyone else

child poverty

preventable, early childhood education, child care

supply-side egalitarianism

increasing goods that everyone deserves because everyone is equal

extreme poverty

the percentage of the poor who are living at less than half of the official poverty line

concentrated poverty

places where poverty is extremely high

culture of poverty

the result of the despair and alienation generated by the objective deprivations, disadvantages, and lack of opportunities people face in those communities

blame the victim

The explanation for being poor, the reasoning goes, must lie in
some flaw within poor people, not in the social system in which they live

blame the society

The most important causes of poverty, the
argument goes, lie in the rules of the game and power relations of society, not in the internalized cultural characteristics of poor people

moral equality of persons

the belief that all people are of equal worth and are entitled to equal respect

social security

universal welfare program, a federal insurance program that provides benefits to retired people and those who are unemployed or disabled

TANF

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, provides grant funds to states and territories to provide families with financial assistance and related support services, means-tested

domination

the ability to control the activities of others

oppression

the combination of inequality, injustice, and
power 1+2

exploitation

refers to the acquisition of economic benefits from the laboring activity of those who are dominated 1+2+3

Inverse interdependent welfare principle

1) The material well-being of the advantaged group of people causally depends upon and is inversely related to the material deprivations of
the disadvantaged.

Inequality exclusion principle

2) The causal relation in (1)
involves the exclusion of the disadvantaged group from access to certain important productive resources controlled by the advantaged group.

appropriation principle

The causal mechanism which translates (2) into (1) involves the advantaged group’s control of the labor effort and associated wealth generated by the disadvantaged group.

class

the system of ordering a society in which people are divided into sets based on perceived social or economic status

slavery

A system of social relations in which one person is the private property of another and can be bought and sold on a market

Civil War Amendments

13, 14, 15, These amendments were intended to guarantee the freedom of the former slaves and grant certain civil rights to them and protect the former slaves and all citizens of the United States from discrimination

reconstruction

expansion of civil rights via a bunch of court decisions

genocide and geographical displacement

-A systematic policy to exterminate a particular category of persons, because of their race, religion, ethnicity or some other characteristic,
-Native American and the British > US Gov., land confiscated by force or killed, ceded land through treaties, now the most economically deprived, especially those who still live on reservations

semi-free labor

A system for including non-citizens in a labor market without giving them the rights and protections of citizenship

second class citizenship

A system of giving different categories of people different citizenship rights on the basis of some attribute

racial profiling

the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense

Jim Crow laws

laws were state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation

systemic racism

a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, education, and political representation

economic marginalization

people do not have the same chances as others to contribute to and benefit from the economy

tax universalism

the principle that welfare services should be available to all by right, according to need, and not restricted by individual ability to pay, but funded by general contributions through taxes, rates, or national insurance payments

underclass

identifies people who live in extreme poverty, marginalized from the
mainstream of American society by a lack of basic education and skills needed for stable employment

working poor

people who work full time but still fall at or under the poverty line

white flight

the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse, movement from the city to the suburbs

redlining

housing segregation where banks/real estate agents would force minorities to less desirable neighborhoods, intentional housing discrimination that lead to segregation

War on Drugs

A plan by Reagan that essentially targeted and arrested more people of color for drug crimes and gave them higher sentences than white people who did similar things

Henry George

who was the most influential proponent of the land value tax and the value capture of land/natural resource rents, an idea known
at the time as 'Single-Tax'. Georgism, the main tenet of
which is that people legitimately own value they fairly
create, but that natural resources and common
opportunities, most importantly the value of land,
belongs equally to each person in a community.

micro-interactions/aggressions

everyday slights, insults, putdowns, invalidations, and offensive behaviors that people experience in daily interactions with generally well-intentioned individuals who may be unaware that they have engaged in demeaning ways

winner-take-all-markets

one in which very small differences in performance generate big differences in pay like the Olympics

decoupling of income from earnings

dissociate income from earnings, making things like, healthcare, transportation and education less expense so people can spend money on things they want to like recreation
encouraging savings, redistributing assets, or guaranteeing a basic
income

BIG/UBI

provides for a decent, no frills standard of living above the poverty line

means-tested welfare

a person only gets a benefit if they fall below some level of income Ex. SNAP, TANF

conditional welfare

require people to behave in a certain way to access welfare goods, such as cash benefits, housing or support services Ex. cash benefits, housing

universal welfare

everyone gets the benefit regardless of income Ex public education, Medicare

social wage

having adequate and nutritious food, comfortable shelter, good health care, decent clothing, opportunities for recreation and entertainment, reasonable transportation, and sufficient income to be a full participant in the social life of a community

citizen dividend

a proposed policy based upon the Georgist principle that the natural world is the common property of all people, proposed that all citizens receive regular payments (dividends) from revenue raised by leasing or taxing the monopoly of valuable land and other natural resources

redistribution

correcting inequalities via tax and benefits Ex. SNAP and Medicare

predistribution

is the idea that the state should try to prevent inequalities occurring in the first place rather than correcting them via tax and benefits once they have occurred Ex. adequate minimum wage, universal healthcare

racial disparities in sentencing

black and black men in particular will get

affirmative action

Any policy that takes into account membership in some historically discriminated group (e.g., race or gender) to increase the likelihood of a person from that group getting a job, being admitted to a university, or otherwise winning some social competition

reparations

decreases wealth gap, because of slavery, by giving out payments

new birth of freedom

what reconstruction meant to the country, a time to redo everything for the better, ending slavery, everyone free

electoral tradeoffs on racial equity
strat 1- max black reps
strat 2 - max reps who support racial justice

Either 1 fewer representatives will support racial justice policies or 2 less black representatives will get electected

domination exploitation - class

identifies the fundamental class division connected to the capitalist character of the economy: the class division between capitalists and workers.

individual attributes - class

identifies a key set of processes through which individuals are sorted into different positions in the class structure or marginalized from those positions altogether.