Hurley
SYG 2000

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Dimensions of Social Inequality
.....A. Characteristics
..........1. We embrace the legal principle of equality.
..........2. Our culture celebrates individual autonomy and achievement.
..........3. We tend to interact with people like ourselves.
..........4. The United States is an affluent society.
.....B. Income
..........1. Salary
..........2. Earnings and Investments
.....C. Wealth
..........1. Money
..........2. Investments
..........3. Valuable goods owned
.....D. The Distribution of Income and Wealth in the United States
.....E. Power
.....F. Occupational Prestige [Table of Selected occupations]
.....G. Schooling [Table of Adult Educational Achievement]

II. Ascription and Social Stratification
.....A. Ancestry
.....B. Race and Ethnicity
.........1. The Color of Money: Being Rich in Black and White
.........2. African-Americans are not as rich as Whites.
.........3. African-Americans are more likely to have more than one income.
.........4. African-Amreicans are more likely to derive income from salary,
...............not investments.
.....C. Gender
........1. The feminization of poverty
........2. Rev. Barbara Harris
.....D. Religion

III. Social Class In The United States
.....A. The Upper Class - 5%
.........1. Upper-Uppers [Old Money]
.........2. Lower-Uppers [Movers and Shakers]
.........3. Caste and Class: The Social Register and Who's Who
.....B. The Middle Class - 40-45%
.........1. Upper-Middle [College educated, Professional Careers]
.........2. Average-Middle [Modest Careers]
.....C. The Working Class - 33%
.........1. Physical Labor
.........2. Less than half own their homes
.....D. The Lower Class - 20%
.........1. The Serving Class
.........2. The Poor
.........3. The departure of Campbell's Soup from Camden, New Jersey
..............left the city one of the poorest in the United States.

IV. The Differences Class Makes
.....A. Class and Health
.....B. Class and Values
.....C. Class and Politics
.....D. Class, Family, and Gender

V. Social Mobility
.....A. Dimensions of Mobility
..........1. Intragenerational Mobility
..........2. Intergenerational Mobility
..........3. Upward Vertical Mobility
..........4. Downward Vertical Mobility
..........5. Lateral Mobility
..........6. Structural Mobility
.....B. Social Mobility: Myth and Reality
..........1. Social mobility, for men, has been fairly high.
..........2. The long-term trend has been upward.
..........3. Within a generation, mobility is usually incremental, not dramatic.
..........4. The short-term trend has been stagnation, with some polarization.
.....C. Mobility by Income Level [Median After-Tax Income Levels]
.....D. Mobility by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
.....E. The Middle-Class Slide
..........1. Earnings have stalled for many workers.
..........2. Multiple job-holding is up.
..........3. More jobs offer little income.
..........4. Young people are remaining at home.
..........5. African-American families are 10% worse off than White families.
.....F. The U.S. Class Struggle in Global Perspective

VI. Poverty In The United States
.....A. Concepts
..........1. Absolute Poverty
..........2. Relative Poverty
.....B. The Extent of U.S. Poverty
..........1. 14.5% of U.S. Population lives in Poverty
..........2. The Poverty line is $14,765 for an urban family of four
..........3. 40% of those in poverty are children
..........4. The average income of those in poverty is $8,803.
.....C. Who are the Poor?
..........1. Age: 40% are children; 12% are elderly
..........2. Race and Ethnicity: The majority of those in poverty are White, although
...............Minority groups experience poverty are disproportionately high rates.
..........3. Gender and Family Patterns: Female headed family are 30 times more
...............likely to be in poverty than male headed families.
..........4. Areas of Residence: pockets of isolated rural poverty and center city ghettos
..........5. Children are the largest group in poverty
..........6. The Feminization of Poverty
.....D. Explaining Poverty
..........1. Blame the Poor
..........2. Blame Society
..........3. Weighing the evidence [Who Is Responsible Poll]
.....E. The Culture of poverty - Oscar Lewis
..........1. Cash Economy
..........2. Low Wages
..........3. High Underemployment and Unemployment
..........4. Little social and economic infrastructure
..........5. Bilateral kinship system
..........6. Blame the victim Cultural Values in Society
.....F. Social Class Orientations Toward Time - Lawrence LeShan
..........1. The HIgher the Social Class the greater the orientation toward Time; both as
................a sense of Family History and a projective plan for the future.
..........2. Poverty is characterized by extreme present-consciousness
.....G. The Working Poor
..........1. 16.6% of poor were full time workers
..........2. 25.8% of poor were part time workers
.....H. Should we blame Society?
..........1. Societies that distribute wealth unequally have the highest rates of relative poverty.
..........2. Societies that strive for economic equality have the lowest rates of poverty.
..........3. Unemployment rates are determined by factors beyond the control of the
...............(potential) employee. These are policy decision set at the National level.
.....I. Homelessness
..........1. Counting the homeless - 1.5 million +
..........2. Causes of Homelessness: economic displacement
.....J. Class and Welfare, Politics and Values
...........The hidden injuries of class obscure the fact that government subsidies that benefit the
...........Upper Class are 5 times greater than the benefits provided to the Poor.
.....K. The Welfare Dilemma

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