Inequality, Class, and Poverty (MIDTERM)

Key Terms

surplus

the unpaid part of the worker’s labor that becomes profit for the boss.

wage labor

is a worker who survives by selling their labor for a wage, while the employer profits from the difference between what the worker produces and what they are paid.

use value

how it is used / how useful the item is

exchange value

how much it’s worth when traded or sold

labor power

creates much more value during that shift for which they are being paid

davis-moore hypothesis

• Social inequality is necessary and useful for society

• The unequal distribution of rewards (money, respect, etc.) is what motivates people to take on the most important and difficult roles, helping society function well.

Tumin critique

Unequal access to opportunity

Rewards don’t always match importance

Inequality creates divisions

Those in power keep others down

The new normal 

rich keep getting richer and most people struggle to get by-has become accepted as -growing inequality “the new normal”

structural realities approach 

•  we must look at how the structure of society itself—its economy, institutions, and power relations—creates and maintains inequality, rather than blaming individuals for their position in the class system.

The New Deal

• FDR’s response to the Great Depression 

• Excluded farm workers and domestic laborers 

• Created the middle class

Federal Housing Administration

• Federally backed (insured by the government), low interest loans 

• The GI Bill gave veterans access to low cost mortgages 

Redlining

The lending industry deemed minority neighborhoods undesirable and risky bets and thus didn’t issue mortgages or loans. Banks would literally outline these neighborhoods in red

Desmon’s typology of poverty

• Physical pain 

• Trauma 

• Instability 

•  The constant fear that things will get worse 

• The loss of liberty

• Feeling like the government is out to get you 

• Embarrassing 

• Diminished life and personhood

social capital - perri bourdieu

depends on the size of the network of connections they can effectively mobilize and the volume of the capital possessed by those with whom they’re connected

networks & relationships

Meritocracy 

• aimed at identifying the talents of members of society so that individuals can be selected for appropriate opportunities

economic capital - pierre bourdieu

money, property, and other material wealth that can be directly converted into money or used to produce more weealth

money & assets

cultural capital - pierre bourdieu 

knowledge & skills 

emodied state: habitus “things we spend a lot of time & labor repeating sot hat we can recall them without thinking “muscle memory” in high level athletics 

objectified state: cultural goods, like cellphone were made to have a meaning makes people look like they have some status (luxary) 

instituionlaized state: qualifications, the value is the seal on the diploma 

labor theory in value

The value of something comes from the amount of human labor needed to make it. Labor is the only thing that gives it value 

profit

capitalists profit because workers give more value than they recieve in return 

C-M-C

the goal of this process is to produce or get a hold of a different item which you did not possess before

M-C-M

capitalists invest in this process precisely to accure more wealth/accumualte money

Production of more money, labor power is itself a commodity, the trading of commodities is about profit 

explotation

• Surplus value & labor theory of value 

• surplus value, free labor that capitalist benefit from during the rest of the workday

production

Turning raw materials into goods or services using human labor, tools, and machines.

stratifiction

• Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore argued that social inequality (stratification) is necessary and useful for society.

• Stratification limits the discovery of the full range of talents in a society 

• Stratification limits equality 

• Stratification functions to give elites the political power necessary to instill ideologies that rationalize status quo as logical, natural, and mora

the intergenerational transmission of (dis) advantage

each generations position depends on the advantages or disadvantages passed down from the last, the rich can secure opputunities for their children that the poor cannot 

double diamond class structure 

came from decades of factory closures, outsourcing, and job cuts. As the economy went global, American workers faced global competition they couldn’t control or understand, while a small elite—the privileged class—gained huge benefits from these changes.

the role of homeownership in building intergenerational wealth

by creating an asset that grows in value and can be passed to children — but unequal access to housing markets means that not all groups benefit equally.

predatory inclusions

bifurcated society: poverty isnt about not having enough money, its about not having enough choices-and being taken advatge of by virtue of that lack of agency

affluent dependency

Wealthy people are relying on welfare more than low-income people 

democratic inequality

as social institutions have opened their doors to historically excluded groups we have ironically, seen an increase in social inequality

the hidden costs of poverty

rental markets are an area of expoltation

rental revenues have far outpaced property owners expenses

overdraft fees

higher intrest rates

check-cashing and payday lending