Social Inequality Ch. 15 Addressing Inequality and Poverty

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Social Inequality Ch. 15Addressing Inequality
and Poverty

• Roderick Graham
• Fordham University

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A Quick Detour Ideology and Inequality

• What do we mean when we say ideology?
• A coherent body of ideas about any given subject
  including symbols, language, objects, and myths
• What do we mean by ideological hegemony?
• Remember that economic and racial groups share
  perspectives and oftentimes intereststhus.
• The ruling class or dominant elites use their
  position at the top of the social ladder to
  fashion an ideology that rationalizes and support
  their power and privileges

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A Quick Detour Ideology and Inequality

• Ideology encompassed in The American Dream
• Anyone can make it if they try
• Individual hard work and effort are the main
  predictors of success
• You can start at the bottom and work your way to
  the top
• Ownership is the hallmark of success
• We all subscribe to it to different degrees
• The economic and social history of the U.S.
  provides some evidence for this ideology
• But empirical evidence suggest that structural
  factors play a greater role in who ends up where
  (especially today)

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A Quick Detour Ideology and Inequality
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A Quick Detour Ideology and Inequality
The Social Construction of the American Dream
Attitudes and Beliefs
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A Quick Detour Ideology and Inequality

• The challenge is to find ways to see the world
  from outside of the ideology.
• But how do we do this?

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A Quick Detour Ideology and Inequality

• The structure of rich and poor, white and black,
  male and female is justified through ideology
• People and groups are where they are based
  primarily on individual ability and work ethic
• Thus, the poors hardship is primarily their own
  doing
• Consequently, addressing structural inequality is
  a non-starter, and aid programs tend to focus on
  the poor and their problems

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Another detour.Agency and Structure

• (Social) Structure enduring patterns,
  relationships and organizations
• Agency the ability of an individual to alter
  these patterns, relationships, and organizations

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Another detour.Agency and Structure

• Structure theories/ideas

• Agency theories/ideas

• Marxian
• Split-labor market
• Socialist social and economic policy

• Spencer
• Neo-classical economic theory
• Davis-Moore
• Capitalist social and economic policy

U.S. Ideology favors agency!
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What do you think?

• If you were in a position to develop a social
  program to address the issue you (your group) is
  currently researching, would you focus more on
  changing the individual (agency) or attempting to
  alter the structure of that individuals
  environment (structure)?
• Ill start with my own example
• I believe that the New York City American higher
  education system is producing two distinctly
  different types of college graduate!

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What do you think? (an example)

• Students lured into going to private schools with
  the promise of a quick degree
• These schools grow in urban areas
• Recruit from low quality schools with students
  who want a college degree but do not have the
  academic skills yet, or who are unaware of their
  options

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What do you think? (an example)

• Students leave with
• high loans to pay
• disproportionately lower gains of social and
  cultural capital
• Inadequate foundation for graduate work
• A degree that is worth symbolically less than
  other schools

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What do you think? (an example)

• I believe that the easiest solution, in this
  case, would be to focus on the parents of high
  school students, and the students themselves.
• With greater education about their options, they
  can possibly make better decisions about their
  college future.
• Training college students who are from these
  areas to make presentations in urban schools
  would be a low-cost way to educate parents and
  students about their options before making a
  college choice.

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Addressing Inequality

• Taxation
• Progressive taxation can redress inequality by
  redistributing wealth (money transfers from the
  rich can be used for social program)
• The tax system has become less progressive in
  recent years
• Recent tax cuts in Bush administration help upper
  class
• Drop in corporate taxes paid (some pay NONE!)
• Changes in the estate tax help the wealthy

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Addressing Inequality

• Affirmative Action
• Can change the structure of society by removing
  structural barriers to employment and wealth
  accumulation
• Proponents argue for equality of opportunity
• Proponents suggest racism prevents minorities
  from equal representation

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Addressing Inequality

• Affirmative Action
• Critics suggest that these programs are unfair
  and reduce incentive
• Criticism revolves around the ideological belief
  in equal opportunity
• Critics say these programs suggest that Blacks
  and women did not earn their place in a school or
  corporation
• Critics say that instead of equal opportunity,
  these programs stress equal results (what does
  this mean?)

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Addressing Inequality

• Progressive taxation and affirmative action are
  programs that contradict the American ideology of
  individual effort and hard work being the sole
  predictor of success
• These programs have had general support during
  specific times of social upheaval
• Progressive taxation Aftermath of Great
  Depression
• Affirmative Action Aftermath of Civil Rights
  Movement
• Generally, public policy has been focused on
  addressing poverty and not inequality

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Addressing Poverty

• Perceptions of the Poor
• Why are people poor?
• Individual flaws
• Values and lifestyle
• Living situation (meso-level community and family
  conditions)
• Macro level political and economic conditions
• For reasons already mentioned, the emphasis is
  usually placed on the first two

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Yet another detour How the homeless are framed
in the media

• Framing of the Poor
• Thematic framing statistics of the poorno
  faces or individuals. The poverty rate rose by
  15...
• Sympathetic framing stories about children, the
  elderly, or the ill and their economic plight
• Negative image framing stories about welfare
  and how it produces dependency on the system
• Exceptionalism framing focus on people who have
  risen from poverty and homelessness
• For these common frames, the inequality between
  rich and poor, the social structure itself, is
  not questioned.

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Addressing Poverty

• Cultural Values and the Poor
• Individualism and Autonomy
• These cultural values suggest that that the poor
  were losers in the battle of life
• Being on welfare is getting handouts, and is
  contradictory to the American values of autonomy
  and self-reliance
• The Moral Character of Work
• God helps those who help themselves
• The poor lack characterthey are not morally
  strong
• Belief that the poor are qualitatively different
  than the rest of society
• These cultural values support the notion that the
  poor are that way because of their own personal
  failings

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Addressing Poverty

• Myths about the Poor
• They have it easy
• Able men make up most of the people on welfare
• Blacks are the majority of people in poverty
• Are single mothers with large families
• Spend money on needless things
• Cheat the system
• All false or gross exaggerationsbut they
  reinforce the ideology that it is their lack of
  morality or lack of work ethic that has placed
  them in poverty

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Addressing Poverty

• Poverty Programs

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Addressing Poverty

• Poverty Programs

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Addressing Poverty

• Poverty Programs

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Addressing Poverty

• Poverty Programs
• Social Insurance programs
• largest amount of recipients
• most expensive
• seen as social successes by politicians, and are
  untouchable
• Public assistance programs
• used by a much smaller percentage of society
• cost the government far less.
• the ideology of the US makes these programs
  contentious. As a result, welfare was reformed
  in 1996.

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Welfare Reform

• Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
  Reconciliation Act (1996)
• Making welfare recipients move into the workforce
  as soon as possible
• Must work after two years or lose their benefits
• Aid is limited to five years over a persons
  lifetime
• Teenage mothers are encouraged to identify
  fathers of their children, stay in school, and
  live at home with parents

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Welfare Reform

• Successes
• The number of people on welfare has decreased
• Women have entered the labor force in large
  numbers
• Child poverty rate fell
• The rate of teenage pregnancy has declined

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Welfare Reform

• Failures
• Increase in the working poor
• Bias towards urban areas where employment
  opportunities are greater
• Inequality is reproduced through parents
  inability to invest time in their children

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Inside of Welfare Reform
The idea is to change the person in order to get
them ready to enter the workforce. We believe in
agency. In some ways, this is a good ideabut
what part of the equation is missing?
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