Sociology 3945: Study Guide 3 Fall 2008

I. Multiple choice questions..
History of social provision in the United State: poorhouse, training schools, New Deal, Social Security Act of 1935(unemployment compensation, old age insurance, aid to dependent chilldren), Civilian Conservation Corps, War on Poverty, Head Start, expansion of Aid to Families with Dependent Children(AFDC), Sargent Shriver, "war on welfare"(Sernau), Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Michael Harrington: The Other America, rural poverty: barrio border, American highlands, central plains, black belt, urban poverty: brain-drain cities and brain-gain cities
suburban poverty: inner ring suburbs, United Nations Development Program (p. 261): definitions and statistics about world poverty, underclass, blaming the poor, culture of poverty, multiproblem 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,, living wage, global capitalism and poverty, Video: "America's War on Poverty: In This Affluent Society " "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. How do the people who obtain jobs at Burger Barn differ from the people who apply but are not hired, and how does the experience of working at Burger Barn change them?

6. 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?

7. 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? Why or why not? How does Sernau think we could reverse what he calls "the race to the bottom?"