Exam 7: Social Class: the Structure of Inequality

Not all systems of slavery were like the one found in the United States. In some countries, enslaved people were not kidnapped from a distant country, and owners had the same racial and ethnic backgrounds as the people they enslaved. Discuss how this type of slavery worked and how certain people were enslaved within a society.

One cost-of-living indicator shows that a salary of $40,000 in Santa Barbara, California is equivalent to $14,000 in Wichita, Kansas. This is primarily because of the cost of housing, which is much less expensive in Wichita. What does this difference say about how the federal government calculates poverty?

Apartheid is a specific example of what system of social stratification?

Some municipalities in the Los Angeles area have zoning rules that prohibit multifamily dwellings and require that all homes be built on lots of a certain size. What is the effect of these policies?

Explain status inconsistency and give two examples of it.

Members of the lower class exercise less often because

The American Dream is the pursuit of material and personal success as well as the idea that anyone can achieve such success. How does widespread belief in the American Dream and individualism actually serve to reinforce socioeconomic barriers?

Being born into a lower social class means that an individual will be more likely to

What do sociologists mean when they say that the homeless population of the United States is often "invisible"?

According to Max Weber, the traditional source of wealth, owning the means of production, is not the only factor in determining social status. How does Weber conceptualize power and prestige? Why does he argue that power and prestige, in addition to material wealth, are important factors in determining a person's social status?

The caste system is the most extreme system of social stratification.

What is the estimated number of people trapped in modern-day slavery?

In the United States, the denial of citizenship rights such as voting to convicted felons, who are disproportionately African American, has been compared to the caste system.

Under the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, ________ years was the total amount of time in which families could receive assistance.

Most Americans claim they

French sociologist and postmodernist Pierre Bourdieu suggested that social reproduction, or the tendency of social classes remaining relatively stable as class status is passed down from one generation to the next, occurs in part through the acquisition of

Maxine comes from a working-class background. Her father worked in construction his whole life and her mother was a stay-at-home mom who dropped out of high school but later got her GED. Maxine becomes interested in computer programming at a young age and spends many hours in the school library teaching herself. Maxine attends the state university on a scholarship. While there, she develops a valuable algorithm for identifying neurological diseases that makes her a multi-millionaire. She drops out of college to continue her work. Which term related to social class best describes this scenario?

In a few sentences, compare and contrast the class and caste systems of stratification.

The folk-pop singer Jewel is famous for having lived in her van when she first moved to San Diego and started performing in a coffee shop. Soon after Atlantic Records signed her, her advance allowed her to rent a house and buy a new car. Of what class-based phenomenon is this an example?

Several members of the Indian government have argued that poverty in India should be calculated according to how many calories per day people consume, not in relation to their incomes. What sort of measure of poverty would this be?