# Study Guide: Chapter 2 — Poverty > Organized by textbook section. Review the objectives, study topics, key takeaways, and questions for each section. ## 2.1: The Measurement and Extent of Poverty ### Study Topics - The Extent of Poverty - Figure 2.1 US Poverty, 1959–2010 ### Key Terms - **episodic poverty** — As defined by the Census Bureau, being poor for at least two consecutive months in some time period. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **health care** — The provision of medical services to prevent, diagnose, and treat health problems. - **poverty line** — The government’s measure of official poverty, based on the cost of a minimal diet for a family that is then multiplied by three. ### Learning Objectives 1. Understand how official poverty in the United States is measured. 2. Describe problems in the measurement of official poverty. 3. Describe the extent of official poverty. ### Key Takeaways - The official poverty rate is based on the size of a family and a minimal food budget; this measure underestimates the true extent of poverty. - The official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, equal to more than 46 million Americans. - About one-third of the US population, or more than 100 million Americans, have incomes no higher than twice the poverty line. ### Review Questions 1. Write a short essay that summarizes the problems by which the official poverty rate is determined. 2. Sit down with some classmates and estimate what a family of four (two parents, two young children) in your area would have to pay annually for food, clothing, shelter, energy, and other necessities of life. What figure do you end up with? How does this sum of money compare with the official poverty line of $22,213 in 2010 for a family of four? ## 2.2: Who the Poor Are- Social Patterns of Poverty ### Study Topics - Family Structure - Labor Force Status - Table 2.1 Poverty and Labor Force Participation, 2010 - People Making a Difference ### Key Terms - **drug** — Any substance other than food that, when taken into the body, affects the structure and/or functioning of the body. - **economy** — The social institution that organizes the production, distribution, and consumption of a society’s goods and services. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **race** — A category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature. ### Learning Objectives 1. Describe racial/ethnic differences in the poverty rate. 2. Discuss how family structure is related to the poverty rate. 3. Explain what poverty and labor force participation data imply about the belief that many poor people lack the motivation to work. ### Key Takeaways - Although people of color have higher poverty rates than non-Latino whites, the most typical poor person in the United States is non-Latino white. - The US childhood poverty rate is the highest of all Western democracies. - Labor force participation data indicate that the belief that poor people lack motivation to work is in fact a myth. ### Review Questions 1. Why do you think the majority of Americans assume poor people lack the motivation to work? 2. Explain to a friend how labor force participation data indicate that it is inaccurate to think that poor people lack the motivation to work. ## 2.3: Explaining Poverty ### Study Topics - Table 2.2 Theory Snapshot - The Functionalist View - The Conflict View - Symbolic Interactionism - Specific Explanations of Poverty - Table 2.3 Explanations of Poverty - Individualistic Explanation - Structural Explanation ### Key Terms - **conflict theory** — The view that society is composed of groups with different interests arising from their placement in the social structure. - **Discrimination** — With regard to racial and ethnic inequality, the arbitrary denial of rights, privileges, and opportunities to members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups. - **economy** — The social institution that organizes the production, distribution, and consumption of a society’s goods and services. - **Functionalism** — The view that social institutions are important for their contributions to social stability. - **health care** — The provision of medical services to prevent, diagnose, and treat health problems. - **individualistic explanation** — The belief that poor people are poor because they lack the motivation to work and have other failings. - **race** — A category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature. - **social stratification** — Rankings of people based on wealth and other resources a society values. - **structural explanation** — The belief that poor people are poor because of various kinds of discrimination and lack of jobs and opportunity. - **Symbolic interactionism** — A perspective in sociology that focuses on the meanings people gain from social interaction. ### Learning Objectives 1. Describe the assumptions of the functionalist and conflict views of stratification and of poverty. 2. Explain the focus of symbolic interactionist work on poverty. 3. Understand the difference between the individualist and structural explanations of poverty. ### Key Takeaways - According to the functionalist view, stratification is a necessary and inevitable consequence of the need to use the promise of financial reward to encourage talented people to pursue important jobs and careers. - According to conflict theory, stratification results from lack of opportunity and discrimination against the poor and people of color. - According to symbolic interactionism, social class affects how people interact in everyday life and how they view certain aspects of the social world. - The individualistic view attributes poverty to individual failings of poor people themselves, while the structural view attributes poverty to problems in the larger society. ### Review Questions 1. In explaining poverty in the United States, which view, individualist or structural, makes more sense to you? Why? 2. Suppose you could wave a magic wand and invent a society where everyone had about the same income no matter which job he or she performed. Do you think it would be difficult to persuade enough people to become physicians or to pursue other important careers? Explain your answer. ## 2.4: The Consequences of Poverty ### Study Topics - Family Problems - Children and Our Future - Health, Illness, and Medical Care - Housing and Homelessness - Crime and Victimization - Lessons from Other Societies ### Key Terms - **crime** — Behavior considered so harmful or offensive that it is banned by the criminal law. - **drug** — Any substance other than food that, when taken into the body, affects the structure and/or functioning of the body. - **educational attainment** — How far one gets in school, which has been shown to depend heavily on family income and race/ethnicity. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **health care** — The provision of medical services to prevent, diagnose, and treat health problems. - **national health insurance** — A system of medicine in which the government pays all or most of the costs of health care, prescriptions, and other items for the entire population. - **poverty line** — The government’s measure of official poverty, based on the cost of a minimal diet for a family that is then multiplied by three. ### Learning Objectives 1. Describe the family and housing problems associated with poverty. 2. Explain how poverty affects health and educational attainment. ### Key Takeaways - Poor people are more likely to have several kinds of family problems, including divorce and family conflict. - Poor people are more likely to have several kinds of health problems. - Children growing up in poverty are less likely to graduate high school or go to college, and they are more likely to commit street crime. ### Review Questions 1. Write a brief essay that summarizes the consequences of poverty. 2. Why do you think poor children are more likely to develop health problems? ## 2.5: Global Poverty ### Study Topics - Global Inequality - Figure 2.6 Global Stratification Map - Measuring Global Poverty - Explaining Global Poverty - Table 2.4 Theory Snapshot - Modernization Theory - Dependency Theory - Comparing the Theories - The Lives of the World’s Poor - Life Expectancy - Figure 2.8 Global Poverty and Life Expectancy, 2006 - Child Mortality - Figure 2.9 Global Poverty and Child Mortality, 2006 - Sanitation and Clean Water - Figure 2.10 Global Stratification and Access to Adequate Sanitation, 2006 - Figure 2.11 Global Stratification and Access to Clean Water, 2006 - Adult Literacy - Figure 2.12 Global Poverty and Adult Literacy, 2008 - Applying Social Research ### Key Terms - **dependency theory** — The view that global poverty results from colonialization and exploitation of the poorest nations by the richest nations and by multinational corporations. - **economy** — The social institution that organizes the production, distribution, and consumption of a society’s goods and services. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **individualistic explanation** — The belief that poor people are poor because they lack the motivation to work and have other failings. - **life expectancy** — The average age to which people can be expected to live. - **modernization theory** — The view that global poverty results from a failure of poor nations to have the beliefs, values, and practices necessary for industrialization and rapid economic growth. - **poverty line** — The government’s measure of official poverty, based on the cost of a minimal diet for a family that is then multiplied by three. - **structural explanation** — The belief that poor people are poor because of various kinds of discrimination and lack of jobs and opportunity. - **vulnerability to poverty** — A significant probability that people who are not officially poor will become poor within the next year. ### Learning Objectives 1. Describe where poor nations tend to be located. 2. Explain the difference between the modernization and dependency theories of poverty. 3. List some of the consequences of global poverty. ### Key Takeaways - People in poor nations live in the worst conditions possible. Deadly diseases are common, and many children die before reaching adolescence. - According to the modernization theory, rich nations became rich because their peoples possessed certain values, beliefs, and practices that helped them become wealthy. Conversely, poor nations remained poor because their peoples did not possess these values, beliefs, and practices. - According to the dependency theory, poor nations have remained poor because they have been exploited by rich nations and by multinational corporations. ### Review Questions 1. Considering all the ways in which poor nations fare much worse than wealthy nations, which one seems to you to be the most important problem that poor nations experience? Explain your answer. 2. Which theory of global poverty, modernization or dependency, makes more sense to you? Why? ## 2.6: Reducing Poverty ### Study Topics - Antipoverty Programs and Policies - Global Poverty ### Key Terms - **dependency theory** — The view that global poverty results from colonialization and exploitation of the poorest nations by the richest nations and by multinational corporations. - **economy** — The social institution that organizes the production, distribution, and consumption of a society’s goods and services. - **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another. - **health care** — The provision of medical services to prevent, diagnose, and treat health problems. ### Learning Objectives 1. Explain why the United States neglects its poor. 2. List any three potentially promising strategies to reduce US poverty. 3. Describe how to reduce global poverty from a sociological perspective. ### Key Takeaways - According to some sociologists, a change in thinking about poverty and the poor and political action by and on behalf of the poor are necessary for a renewed effort to help poor Americans. - Potentially successful antipoverty programs and policies to help the US poor include expanding their employment opportunities and providing them much greater amounts of financial and other aid. - To help people in poor nations, gender and ethnic inequality must be addressed. ### Review Questions 1. Write a brief essay summarizing the changes in thinking that some sociologists argue must occur before a renewed effort to reduce poverty can take place. 2. Write a brief essay summarizing any four policies or programs that could potentially lower US poverty. ## 2.7: End-of-Chapter Material ### Key Terms - **conflict theory** — The view that society is composed of groups with different interests arising from their placement in the social structure. - **crime** — Behavior considered so harmful or offensive that it is banned by the criminal law. - **dependency theory** — The view that global poverty results from colonialization and exploitation of the poorest nations by the richest nations and by multinational corporations. - **Discrimination** — With regard to racial and ethnic inequality, the arbitrary denial of rights, privileges, and opportunities to members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups. - **individualistic explanation** — The belief that poor people are poor because they lack the motivation to work and have other failings. - **modernization theory** — The view that global poverty results from a failure of poor nations to have the beliefs, values, and practices necessary for industrialization and rapid economic growth. - **poverty line** — The government’s measure of official poverty, based on the cost of a minimal diet for a family that is then multiplied by three. - **social stratification** — Rankings of people based on wealth and other resources a society values. ### Chapter Summary 1. Poverty statistics are misleading in at least two ways. First, the way that poverty is measured is inadequate for several reasons, and more accurate measures of poverty that have recently been developed suggest that poverty is higher than the official poverty measure indicates. Second, even if people live slightly above the poverty line, they are still living in very difficult circumstances and are having trouble making ends meet. 2. Children, people of color, the South, and single-parent families headed by women have especially high poverty rates. Despite what many Americans think, the most typical poor person is white, and most poor people who are able to work outside the home in fact do work. 3. To explain social stratification and thus poverty, functionalist theory says that stratification is necessary and inevitable because of the need to encourage people with the needed knowledge and skills to decide to pursue the careers that are most important to society. Conflict theory says stratification exists because of discrimination against, and blocked opportunities for, the have-nots of society. Symbolic interactionist theory does not try to explain why stratification and poverty exist, but it does attempt to understand the experience of being poor. 4. The individualistic explanation attributes poverty to individual failings of poor people themselves, while the structuralist explanation attributes poverty to lack of jobs and lack of opportunity in the larger society. 5. Poverty has serious consequences in many respects. Among other problems, poor children are more likely to grow up to be poor, to have health problems, to commit street crime, and to have lower levels of formal education. 6. The nations of the world differ dramatically in wealth and other resources, with the poorest nations being found in Africa and parts of Asia. 7. Global poverty has a devastating impact on the lives of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. Poor nations have much higher rates of mortality and disease and lower rates of literacy. 8. Modernization theory attributes global poverty to the failure of poor nations to develop the necessary beliefs, values, and practices to achieve economic growth, while dependency theory attributes global poverty to the colonization and exploitation by European nations of nations in other parts of the world. 9. A sociological perspective suggests that poverty reduction in the United States and around the world can occur if the structural causes of poverty are successfully addressed. ### Application It is December 20, and you have just finished final exams. In two days, you will go home for winter break and are looking forward to a couple weeks of eating, sleeping, and seeing your high school friends. Your smartphone signals that someone has texted you. When you read the message, you see that a friend is asking you to join her in serving a holiday supper on December 23 at a food pantry just a few miles from your campus. If you do that, you will not be able to get home until two days after you had been planning to arrive, and you will miss a big high school “reunion” party set for the night of the twenty-third. What do you decide to do? Why? ### Action Ideas To help fight poverty and the effects of poverty, you may wish to do any of the following: 1. Contribute money to a local, state, or national organization that provides various kinds of aid to the poor. 2. Volunteer at a local food pantry or homeless shelter. 3. Start a canned food or used clothing drive on your campus. 4. Write letters or send e-mails to local, state, and federal officials that encourage them to expand antipoverty programs.