Sociology 3945: Study Guide 3 Spring 2004

I. Concepts, people, videos: blaming the poor, culture of poverty, workhouse system, AFDC, War on Poverty, TANF, multi-problem poor, income distribution by fifths, Barbara Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed), Katherine Newman (No Shame in my Game), Harlem, social networks and low-wage work, social costs of low wage work, respectable values vs. street values, deindustrialization, outsourcing, homeless and work, location of poverty in America (postindustrial city, rural poverty, urban fringe, black belt, American highlands, Barrio border and rural Southwest, central plains), living wage, global capitalism and poverty, Video: "On the Outside Looking In: Poverty in the Twin Cities;" "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?"

II. Essay Questions

1. What are the parameters Barbara Ehrenreich sets for herself in exploring the world of low wage work? What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of her research methodology? What do you think are the most important things she discovers and do you think the kind of investigation she is doing can bring any kind of change to American society? Why or why not?

2. Draw on all three of Ehrenreich's research setting to draw a composite picture of the world of low wage work. Who holds these jobs and what are the challenges of life at this level of income? Why do wages stay so low even in times and places where there is a shortage of workers? What are the factors that make union organizing so difficult for this workforce?

3. Theorists as disparate as Adam Smith (the great prophet of capitalism) and Karl Marx (the great prophet of socialism) agree that people's work experiences do a great deal to shape their understandings and the quality of their lives (physical, emotional, spiritual) What does it mean for the quality of life of large numbers of workers that Walmart is the largest employer in the world and that many other companies are doing their utmost to copy the successful Walmart model?

4. Why do low wage employers such as "Burger Barn" pay even lower wages in the inner city? What does Newman conclude about the motivation to work among the Harlem residents she studies in her book, No Shame in My Game, and what kind of evidence does she use to support her argument?

5. Who inhabits the lower fifth of the income population in the United States? What are the forces that perpetuate poverty or near poverty in the United States? What are the trends affecting this population, and how much of the responsibility for the perpetuation of poverty lies with the bad choices and/or values of the poor?

6. In announcing the War on Poverty back in 1965, Lyndon Johnson stated an American commitment to end poverty in the United States. Is this an impossible dream, and if so, why? Why is childhood poverty actually more prevalent in the United States that in the other affluent democracies? What are the ways in which poverty, and especially its effects on children, could be ameliorated?