Exam 7: Social Class: the Structure of Inequality

In the past several decades, America has seen a widening of the gap between the income levels of the upper class and those of the middle and lower classes.

How is Max Weber's idea of social class different from Karl Marx's?

The practice of refusing mortgages for houses in poor and minority neighborhoods is called:

Mother Teresa was a person with tremendous power and prestige, yet she was very poor. Mother Teresa is an example of which of the following?

Which of the following variables have the greatest impact on crime rates?

When we compare the salaries of the worst-paid members of a corporation with the salary of the CEO, what sort of measure of poverty are we using?

Which of the following demonstrates Karl Marx's conviction that social inequality would continue to grow?

According to Karl Marx, what social relations matter most in a capitalist system?

Drew Westen, in "The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation," argues that, when advocates of health-care reform talk about universal health care as a way to help "the uninsured" or "the underinsured," they turn many people against universal health care because there is an underlying assumption that poor people are getting what they deserve. What do sociologists call this assumption?

Social mobility that occurs over the course of an individual's lifetime is called:

The average age at which people marry and start families is not related to social class.

Ascribed status is usually involuntary and often assigned at birth. Achieved status is voluntary and often based on merit, ability, or achievement. What sort of status would you expect to find in a closed system?

How do observers determine someone's socioeconomic status when meeting them for the first time?

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

Which of the following is NOT one of the basic principles of social stratification?

What do sociologists call it when an individual changes her career but remains within the same social class?

A person can work full-time at a minimum-wage job and still be considered poor or beneath the poverty line.

What system of stratification is commonly used in capitalist societies?

Belonging to a particular social class has a profound effect on almost every aspect of a person's life.

Many workers at auto plants in Michigan lost their jobs when the plants closed. For the vast majority of these workers, this has resulted in: