Sociology; You May Ask Yourself Chapter 10: Poverty

culture of poverty

the argument that poor people adopt certain practices that differ from those of middle class "main stream" society in order to adapt and survive in difficult economic circumstances

underclass

the notion, building on the culture of poverty argument, that the poor not only are different from mainstream society in their inability to take advantage of what society has to offer, but also are increasingly deviant and even dangerous to the rest of us

perverse incentives

reward structures that lead to suboptimal outcomes by stimulating counterproductive behavior; for example, welfare—to the extent that it discourages work efforts—is argued to have perverse incentives.

absolute poverty

the point at which a household's income falls below the necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its members

relative poverty

a measurement of poverty based on a percentage of the median income in a given location

parenting stress hypothesis

a paradigm in which low income, unstable employment, a lack of cultural resources, and a feeling of inferiority from social class comparisons exacerbate household stress levels; this stress, in turn, leads to detrimental parenting practices such as yelling and hitting, which are not conducive to healthy child development

Poverty

deprivation due to economic circumstances severe enough that one cannot live with dignity

Criticism of official poverty measurement

overestimates and underestimates poverty.

Overestimation of poverty

doesn't include food stamps, medicaid, public housing.

Underestimation of poverty

because housing is so expensive now, people spend <30% of income on food. (it should be based on housing costs or a reduced multiplier)

Causes of Poverty

Culture, Structure, Situational

dependency culture

argument that providing welfare erodes people's desire to work (critics: most poverty is situational and most poor have same values as non poor)

structural poverty

poverty as the result of lack of income producing employment for all sectors in a capitalist society. Exists because capitalism needs a reserve army of workers who can be fired in economic stagnations and rehired in prosperity.

situational poverty

poverty is widespread but temporary at individual level, occurs in response to major life crisis, 2/3 of americans will use a welfare program @ some point, and only 90% of us will use it only once. 3% of families are persistently poor over multiple years.