Structural Barriers to Disaster Resilience: Social Class I Session 7

2 Session Objectives  Describe distribution of income and poverty in the U.S.  Define “social class” and describe distribution of social class in the U.S.  Explain how “social class” structures people’s access to “life chances”

Session 73 Wealth Gap in the U.S. Source: United for a Fair Economy

Session 74 Change in After-Tax Household Income Source: United for a Fair Economy Bottom 20% Fouth 20% Middle 20% Second 20% Top 20% Top 1%

Session 75 Change in Average Household Net Worth Source: United for a Fair Economy Bottom 40% Middle 20% Next 20% Top 20% Top 1%

Session 76 U.S. Poverty Rates: Source: U.S. Census Bureau Poverty in the United States: P

Session 77 Persons Below the Poverty Rate 2001 Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey

Session 78 Persons Below Poverty Level by Education of Householder 1998 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Statistical Abstracts of the United States, Table 761

Session 79 Persons Below Poverty Level by Age of Householder 1998 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Statistical Abstracts of the United States, Table 761

Session 710 Persons Below Poverty Level by Type of Household 2001 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Poverty in the United States: P

Session 711 Myths and Realities about Social Class in the U.S. Myths  The U.S. is a classless society  The U.S. is a middle- class nation  Members of the U.S. are all getting richer  Everyone has an equal chance to succeed Realities  There are enormous differences in the economic status of U.S. citizens  The middle class in the U.S. holds a very small share of the wealth  The middle class is shrinking in size, and the gap between rich and poor is bigger than it has ever been

Session 712 Social Class Structure in the U.S. Upper Classes <2% Middle Classes 50-60% Working Class 25-30% Underclass -- 14% of Lower Class Lower Classes 20-25% Working Poor -- 60% of Lower Class Officially Poor -- 26% of Lower Class Lower Middle Class % of Middle Class Upper Middle Class % of Middle Class Source: Marger, Martin N Social Inequality: Patterns and Processes. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.

Session 713 Examples of Life Chances Can You Think of Others?

Session 714 Examples of Life Styles Can You Think of Others?

Session 715 Social Class and Life Chances/ Life Styles  There are class differences in life-styles  Class standing has a significant impact on our chances for survival  Class standing has a significant impact for educational attainment  All Americans do not have an equal opportunity to succeed  Racism and sexism compound effects of classism The next few slides show examples of the effect of social class on selected areas of life

Session 716 Social Class and Health  Poor families are more likely than non-poor families to be malnourished  Poor families are less likely than non-poor families to have health insurance  The infant mortality rate for poor families is over twice the national average  Average life expectancy is lower for poor families than non-poor families  Members of poor families are more likely than those in non-poor families to work and live in hazardous or toxic environments

Session 717 Social Class and Housing  Poor families spend a larger proportion of their household income on housing than do non-poor families  Poor families are more likely than non-poor families to live in sub-standard housing  Poor families are more likely than non-poor families to live in overcrowded housing  The number of renters far exceeds the amount of affordable housing in the U.S.  Estimates of homelessness range from 500,000 to 2 million in the United States

Session 718 Social Class and Education  Children from poor families are more likely than children from non-poor families to attend schools with inadequate funding  Children from poor families are less likely than children from non-poor families to finish high school  Children from poor and working -class families are more likely than children from families in higher classes to be tracked into general or vocational programs in school, while children from higher classes are more likely to be tracked into college- preparatory programs