Allyn & Bacon 2009 Poverty Chapter 5 Poverty “This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:  any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;  preparation of any derivative work, including the extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;  any rental, lease, or lending of the program.”

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 Myth or Fact?  Both the poor and the affluent are a drain on the treasury and both pay to support it.  Receiving welfare encourages women to have more children, to leave their husbands and to avoid work. Fact Myth

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 Defining Poverty An absolute definition of poverty establishes a fixed economic level below which people are considered poor, and this level does not necessarily change as society on the whole becomes more or less affluent. A relative definition of poverty focuses on the idea that people are poor relative to some standard, and that standard is partially shaped by the lifestyles of other citizens A cultural definition of poverty views poverty not only in terms of how many resources people have, but also in terms of why they failed to achieve a higher economic level.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 Extent of Poverty in the U.S.  In 2005 in the U.S. 37 million people, or 1 in 8 citizens, or 12.6% of the population, were living in poverty  The poorest 20% of households receive less than 4% of the total income while the wealthiest 20% receive over 50%.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 FIGURE 5.1 Percentage of People Living Below the Poverty Level, Among All People and Among Children Under Eighteen Years of Age, in the United States,

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 FIGURE 5.2 Percentage of Aggregate Income to Households from the Poorest 20 percent to the Richest 5 Percent,

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 Who are the poor?  Racial and Ethnic Minorities Most of the poor in the U.S. are white, while nonwhites are more likely to be poor than whites.  Children Thirty four percent of the poor are children under the age of eighteen.  The Elderly Poverty is relatively low among the elderly: It is slightly lower than among non-elderly adults.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 FIGURE 5.4 People Living Below the Poverty Level by Race as a Percentage of All Poor People, 2005

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 Who are the poor?  Women A growing number of women are among the poor, which has been called the feminization of poverty.  Central City and Rural Dwellers Poverty tends to be concentrated in certain places such as central-city and rural areas.  The Disabled As many as one-third of the poor suffer from severe physical disabilities.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 FIGURE 5.5 Percentage of People in Various Groups Below the Poverty Level, 2005

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 FIGURE 5.6 Percentage of Children Younger Than Eighteen Living Below the Poverty Level, 2005

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 FIGURE 5.7 Poverty Rate of Single-Parent Families Headed by a Woman,

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 Poverty and Employment  The Working Poor Despite common misconceptions, many adults below the official poverty line actually work for a living, often at low- paying or part-time work.  The Unemployed The unemployed receive unemployment benefits for a time, but these are exhausted eventually.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 Homelessness  Causes of homelessness can be found in recent social trends, such as the decline in the number of industrial jobs that pay a living wage, the flight of jobs from the cities where people live, the contraction of social welfare, increases in poverty, and the decline in the amount of low-cost housing.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 The Functionalist Perspective  The Stratification System Stratification exists because it makes some useful contribution to the ongoing maintenance of society. Davis and Moore argue  All societies must ensure that people will fill essential positions and perform important tasks.  Some positions are more important or more difficult than others.  The stratification system serves to motivate people to occupy and work hard at all of these essential positions.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 The Functionalist Perspective  The Economy Normal and sometimes desirable changes in the economy affect the level of poverty, such as inflation and technological innovation. These kinds of changes are necessary for a healthy economy but their cumulative impact is to increase rates of unemployment and poverty, which is called structural unemployment.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 The Functionalist Perspective  Gans (1994) suggests that there are benefits to society from poverty ensuring that society’s “dirty work” will be done subsidizing many of the activities of the affluent creating jobs for people who serve the poor creating a market for inferior goods using the poor as symbols of the “underdog”

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 The Conflict Perspective  Marx viewed society as involving constant struggle between social classes over scarce resources. The affluent are merely using the resources available to protect their own position.  Once people become successful they tend to pass on their success to their children and this makes it more difficult for people on the bottom to move up.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 The Interactionist Perspective and Cultural Analysis  The cultural analysis of poverty focuses on the psychological orientations that may emerge among groups of people who live under conditions of poverty. People who live in poverty develop a cultural orientation that helps them adapt to their life circumstances in a way that enables them to feel good.  Criticisms of this perspective include “blaming the victim” and its limited applicability.

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 Future Prospects  Approaches to reducing poverty include Encouraging full employment  A situation in which everyone or nearly everyone who wants to work can find a job Educating and training the poor to compete effectively in the job market  Early childhood interventions include Head Start  Jobs programs include on-the-job training and temporary public service jobs

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009 Future prospects  Providing income maintenance programs Social insurance programs  Social Security  Medicare Public assistance programs  Supplemental Security Income (SSI)  Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)  General Assistance (GA)  Medicaid  Noncash Benefits