Outline

NO CEM TODAY… Poverty and the Life Course

Spells of Poverty Race, Education, Gender Welfare Use

Fundraising/Campus Visit

Please make a big table…but don’t sit with your back to the board...Today’s plan…Part 1 lecture/review questions/reading tables…Part 2 reflection on whether you are persuaded and on CEM

Again…lots of data…goal is not to make your head hurt…but to prove that many common beliefs about poverty are not supported by evidence

Slides up through last Thursday are now on website

Social Mobility

Sociologists Study Two Forms of Social Mobility

Intra-generational- comparing the position of a person over an extended period of time.

Start out as a mail clerk and end up CEO

…please describe what is meant by the term “life course” and explain how the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) allows researchers to study the life course.

Poverty in America

Life course “Social processes extending over the individual

lifespan or over significant portions of it, especially with regard to the family cycle, educational and training histories, and employment and occupational careers” (Rank 2005: 89)

Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) Started with 4,800 households with information

from 18,000 individuals Tracked from 1968-1997

2. In chapter 4, Rank again presents data regarding the likelihood of poverty. Please explain what the main conclusion of the data presented in Table 4.1 is. Be sure to incorporate at least one statistic from the text or table in your answer. 

Percent of Americans Who Experience Poverty Across Adulthood By the time they are old, most

Americans will experience a spell of poverty

Percent of Americans Who Experience Poverty Across Adulthood

Odds of experiencing long bouts of poverty are low By 60, 6.1% of American

population has had spells of 5 or more years

Odds are better that people will “Yo-Yo in and out of poverty By 60, 20.6% have

experienced 5 or more years

3. In chapter 4, Rank again presents data regarding the likelihood of poverty. This question requires you to grapple with a table. Take your time. Read his examples to understand how the table works. Look at table 4.3:

By the age of 60, what percent of the Black population has experienced poverty?

By the age of 60, what percent of the White population has experienced poverty?

By the age of 70, what percent of the Female population has experienced poverty?

By the age of 70, what percent of those with less than 12 years of school has experienced poverty?

Percent of Americans Who Experience Poverty Across Adulthood By Race, Education & Gender Those who lack human capital and

Blacks are at greatest risk

 4. In chapter 4, Rank again presents data regarding the likelihood of poverty. This question requires you to grapple with a table. Take your time. Read his examples to understand how the table works. Look at table 4.4:

By the age of 60, what percent of the Black population with more than 12 years of school has experienced poverty?

By the age of 60, what percent of the White population with less than 12 years of school has experienced poverty?

Poverty, Race, Gender and Human Capital

“This substantial racial effect is undoubtedly related to a complext set of historical, institutional, and social forces associated with educational and occupational disadvantage, labor market discrimination, and residential discrimination”(Ranke 2005: 99)

We will explore this at much greater length down the line

5. Rank suggests that is wrong to think of welfare use as an act of social deviance. Please explain why he argues this, being sure to incorporate a direct quote or statistic from the text as evidence.

 

Percent of Americans Who Participate in Welfare Programs Across Adulthood Cash: TANF; SSI

In Kind: Food Stamps; Medicaid; Housing Vouchers

“A majority of Americans utilize a public assistance program at least once during adulthood” (Rank 2005: 104)

Percent of Americans Who Participate in Welfare Programs Across Adulthood

Most will receive welfare… By age 50, majority of Americans

have received some form of welfare

Most will not receive for long: At age 50, 12% have used it in 5

years or more

Most will use in at least 3 years: By age 65, the majority of

Americans will have received welfare in 3 or more years

6. Rank suggests that “poverty places economic, social and psychological costs on the non-poor” (Rank 2005: 110). Please choose one of the areas of health, education or crime that he says costs the non-poor, and explain his argument. 

7. The overall point of chapter 4 is that there are two reasons it is in YOUR self interest to reduce poverty. Briefly summarize these two reasons?

Did Rank persuade you that is in your self interest to reduce poverty? Why or why not?

1. Please describe the first weeks of your community service. Was it like you expected it to be? Describe the feelings you had as you worked with the children in the after school program.

2. What are your general impressions about Chester Eastside Ministries and the services they provide to low income residents of Chester? Are there any questions you have now that you have been there for a few weeks?

Fundraising and a Trip to Campus A moderator to facilitate discussion Fundraising Ideas

Assignment of tasks Trip to Campus

Ideas? Assignment of tasks