General Sites on
Social Class and Poverty
Poverty resources on the
Web
Welfare
Reform Webpages
Cross-national comparisons
U.S. rate higher than comparable
nations
U.S. rate lower than
non-comparable nations
History of the poor
Universality of poor
Attitudes toward the poor the
poor
Variable treatment of the poor
Scale of poverty related to power
and ideology
American poverty declining but
persistent
Functions of poverty
Availability of cheap,servile
labor
Keeps general wages down
Lowers prices
Employment boost to nonpoor
Market for shoddy items
The poor pay more for less
Dumping seconds
Why people become poor--
Human capital approach:
Fewer job skills
Lesser education
Vulnerability to unemployment
Family instability
Reflexivity of family stress and unemployment
Macrostructural approach:
System requirement for poverty
group
Political choice to produce
poverty
Power structure of political parties
The role of government as redistributor of wealth
Fear and loathing of central government
Financing politics
Economic policy: who benefits
Unemployment vs. inflation
Interest rates
Wages, minimum wage and living wage
Access to jobs
Systematic discrimination
Access to credit
Ideological roots of the
perpetuation of poverty
Capitalist ethic
Frontier thinking
Divisive thinking: Them or us
Divide et impera
Social psychology of poverty
The effects of suffering
Nutritional deprivation effects
Chemical pollutants and the brain
Mate selection limitations
Fatalism—perceptions of future
life as not self produced
Unpredictability- lack of planning
Uncontrollability- depression, withdrawal
Immediate gratification
Nonachievement
Why poverty persists:
Reproduction of class structure
Growing up in poverty
Learning to be impoverished
Schooling for poverty
Vicious "cycle of
poverty"
Health problems
"Mental health problems"
Hunger
Deteriorated housing and homelessness
Exposure to violence
Gang culture
Drugs and alcohol
Human degradation
Culture of poverty thesis
Community structure
Kinship
Lifestyle