Exam 18: The Two Americas Inequality, Class, and Conflict

Define class and explain how the definition ties into the sources of income to households. -What do the authors mean by class? What is the largest class?

Income inequality can be measured by the distribution of income. A common method of measuring the distribution of income is to use quintiles. What does this mean?

Whats defention of terms: -income

Define class and explain how the definition ties into the sources of income to households. -Which is more important in determining class: the level of income a person earns, or their relationship to the ownership of capital?

Compare and contrast relevant statistics on income and wealth for the United States. -Use Table 18.5 in the text to compute the ratio of net worth for the highest income quintile with that of the lowest income quintile. Given the other evidence in this chapter, do you suspect that this ratio has increased or decreased over the last 30 years?

What is the difference between income and wealth?

What are sources of income for individuals in the U.S.?

What does the phrase, "the two Americas," refer to?

What was the approximate average (median) net worth for the wealthiest 20% of U.S. households in 2000?

Whats defention of terms: -wealth

An often cited statistic is the ratio between CEO salaries and those of average worker. In 1960, the average CEO earned 41 times as much as the average worker. In 1997 the ratio had increased to approximately

Total personal income to US households was $10,891 billion in 2006. Approximately what percent of this income came from employee compensation?

What is the definition of "class" used in the text?

Describe the sources of income and purchasing power for households. -What is the difference between income and wealth?

Describe the sources of income and purchasing power for households. -Which sources of income are generated from work and which from the ownership of assets?

Compare and contrast relevant statistics on income and wealth for the United States. -Use Table 18.2 in the text to describe how the distribution of income has changed in the United States over the last three decades. Has inequality increased or decreased? How do you know?

What is the difference between income and wealth?

Compare and contrast relevant statistics on income and wealth for the United States. -What is the poverty threshold for a family of three in the United States in 2005? What percentage of the population has income below this level?

Whats defention of terms: -Gini coefficient

According to the World Bank, the Gini coefficient for India was 0.368 in 2004-05 and 0.513 for Argentina in 2004. Based on this data,