SOC 268 Chapter 2 Quiz Questions – Flashcards
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A radical left solution to the problem of poverty would be -raising the minimum wage. -creating equal opportunity for people to achieve according to their talents. -expanding government assistance programs. -replacing our nation's capitalist economic system.
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replacing our nation's capitalist economic system.
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Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks as a conservative when he argues that the most effective way to prevent social problems like poverty is to -increase welfare benefits. -teach children personal responsibility and hard work. -eliminate welfare entirely. -transform this country's market economy.
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teach children personal responsibility and hard work.
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As of 2010, the typical "welfare family" received about how much assistance each month? -$400 -$800 -$1,000 -$1,200
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$400
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To provide an example of a tax that is regressive rather than progressive, you would point to -the inheritance tax. -the federal income tax. -the tax on gasoline. -no tax, because there are no regressive taxes in the United States.
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the tax on gasoline.
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Karl Marx argued that in a capitalist society, a system that produced so much ended up making the majority so poor. He called this -blaming the victim. -an internal contradiction. -meritocracy. -social disorganization.
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an internal contradiction.
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Most people in the United States who live below the poverty line are -elderly. -homeless. -white. -children.
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white.
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The educational policy of placing some children in college-bound ("academic") paths and others in job-oriented ("vocational") paths is called -tracking. -mainlining. -mainstreaming. -redlining.
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tracking.
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In approaching the problem of homelessness, liberals point to -personal problems, such as alcohol abuse and mental illness, among the homeless. -economic issues such as low-wage jobs and high rates of unemployment. -moral weakness among poor people. -the need for greater self-discipline and personal responsibility.
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economic issues such as low-wage jobs and high rates of unemployment.
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A person who claims that government welfare assistance creates dependency is probably -a liberal. -a radical on the left. -a conservative. -unconcerned with politics.
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a conservative.
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Overall, the result of the 1996 federal welfare reform has been -to increase in the number of people receiving welfare assistance. -to end of the policy of providing cash assistance to any poor people. -to bring about a steady decrease in the poverty rate. -to decrease the number of people receiving welfare but with little change to the number of poor people.
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to decrease the number of people receiving welfare but with little change to the number of poor people.
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Social stratification is defined as -the fact that some people tend to outperform others. -the way people in a society size up their social standing. -a society's system of ranking categories of people in a hierarchy. -the difference in income between rich and poor members of a society.
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society's system of ranking categories of people in a hierarchy.
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Families in the top 10 percent of income earn at least -$69,000 a year. -$169,000 a year. -$269,000 a year. -$500,000 a year.
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$169,000 a year.
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In explaining the problem of homelessness, conservatives point to -the recent increase in low-wage jobs. -the low minimum wage. -personal problems, such as alcohol abuse and mental illness, among the homeless.
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personal problems, such as alcohol abuse and mental illness, among the homeless.
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Radicals on the left agree with liberals that poverty is -a matter of personal responsibility. -built into the very nature of capitalism. -a societal issue. -mostly a thing of the past.
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a societal issue.
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Poverty involves not only a lack of money; it also can mean a lack of skills, values, attitudes, and schooling, which together are called -meritocracy. -cultural capital. -the subculture of affluence. -intersection theory.
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cultural capital.
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The Williams family lives in an inner-city community that is poor, cut off from the larger society, and without good schools or good-paying jobs. This family is experiencing what sociologists call -hypersegregation. -redlining. -homelessness. -prejudice.
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hypersegregation.
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Experts estimate that about how many people in the United States are homeless at some point during a year? -about 16,000 -about 1.6 million -about 16 million
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about 1.6 million
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The term infant mortality refers to the risk of death -prior to birth, including abortions and miscarriages. -for a mother during childbirth. -during the first year of life. -before reaching the teenage years.
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during the first year of life.
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If you wanted to study poverty in terms of race and ethnicity, you would probably use -multicultural theory. -social disorganization theory. -Marxist theory. -cultural capital theory.
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multicultural theory.
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The study of how race, class, and gender often result in multiple dimensions of disadvantage is called -subculture of poverty theory. -cultural capital theory. -social disorganization theory. -intersection theory.
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intersection theory.
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Jonas lives in a region of the United States with a very high poverty rate. He probably lives in -the Southwest, near the Mexican border -New England, along the Atlantic coast -the Midwest -the Pacific Northwest
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the Southwest, near the Mexican border
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If you were to take a conservative solution to the problem of poverty in the United States, you would focus on -government activism. -societal responsibility. -personal responsibility. -replacing the market economy.
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personal responsibility.
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Anthropologist Oscar Lewis referred to cultural patterns that make poverty a way of life as -the bell curve thesis. -the culture of poverty. -meritocracy. -social disorganization.
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the culture of poverty.
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Which term refers to the trend by which women represent an increasing share of the U.S. poor? -gender gap -glass ceiling -feminization of poverty -poverty gap
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feminization of poverty
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In 1945, sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore made the claim that inequality has useful consequences for the operation of society. This claim is consistent with which type of theoretical analysis? -symbolic-interaction analysis -social-disorganization analysis -social-conflict analysis -structural-functional analysis
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structural-functional analysis
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Sociologist Herbert Gans claimed that inequality benefits -everyone by making society more productive. -rich people by ensuring there is a supply of poor people willing to do almost any job, no matter how unpleasant. -bureaucrats by expanding government assistance programs. -corporations because poor people are a profitable market.
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rich people by ensuring there is a supply of poor people willing to do almost any job, no matter how unpleasant.
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If you take a radical-left point of view, you see the main cause of poverty as -personal deficiencies in poor people themselves. -the normal operation of a capitalist economy. -misguided government assistance programs. -modern, industrial technology.
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the normal operation of a capitalist economy.
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If you take a liberal point of view, poverty is mostly a problem that -involves society as a whole. -focuses on traits of poor people. -can never be solved. -people should solve for themselves.
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involves society as a whole.
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Which concept is used by the U.S. government for the purpose of counting the poor? -poverty line -poverty gap -median income -nonfarm family income
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poverty line
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If you were to take a conservative solution to the problem of poverty in the United States, you would focus on -government activism. -societal responsibility. -personal responsibility. -replacing the market economy.
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personal responsibility.
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William Ryan's "blaming the victim" thesis states that many people believe the cause of poverty is found in -the capitalist economy. -our tax system. -the poor themselves. -a high rate of immigration.
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the poor themselves.
