Deck 10: The Poor

Question 1

Some people who make up the poor work full-time.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

According to the Class Structure Hypothesis, the poor have more choices, yet find it harder to solve their personal dilemmas compared to members of other social classes

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Anomie refers to the minimum income below which individuals find it difficult to subsist.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The U.S. employs a relative definition of poverty.

Question 5

The most useful strategy, when comparing cross- national rates of poverty, is to look at the absolute definitions of poverty.

Question 6

The U.S. poverty rate is lower than that in most Western European nations.

Question 7

The official poverty line in the U.S. varies by family size.

Question 8

About one in seven young persons in the United States lives in poverty.

Question 9

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Thrifty Food Plan, currently used as one of the components of the poverty line, does not provide a nutritionally adequate diet over the long-term.

Question 10

In general, a family of four living at the poverty line should have little trouble meeting its expenses if it is reasonably careful.

Question 11

People who have few options often must turn to public assistance in order to survive

Question 12

The class structure hypothesis is:.

A) the lower the social class, the more crafty people must be to get by
B) The lower the social class, the greater the need they have
C) The lower the social class, the more politically active people are and the more effective they are in obtaining government benefits
D) The lower the social class, the fewer choices people have and the less effective they are in solving personal problems
E) The lower the social class, the more choices people have and the more effectively they can solve their personal problems.

Question 13

The harshness with which the non-poor judge the poor alerts us to the fact that they (the poor) _________________________.

A) should often be in jail
B) usually live in government subsidized housing
C) get more tax expenditures than do other social classes
D) get more perquisites than do other social classes
E) have fewer choices than do the non-poor

Question 14

________________________ refers to a minimum income level below which individuals or families find it difficult to subsist.

A) Absolute deprivation
B) Poverty
C) tax expenditures
D) job perquisites
E) anomie

Question 15

The level of poverty in the United States:

A) remains unknowable
B) rose steadily over the last century
C) remained the same over the last century
D) declined over time from the late 19th century until about 1970
E) could be understood if only scholars would study it

Question 16

The level of poverty in the United States:

A) is about the same as in other Western nations
B) is much lower than in other Western nations
C) is much higher than in other Western nations
D) has risen in other Western nations
E) is irrelevant to understanding inequality

Question 17

Determining the poverty line involves decisions about all these factors except:

A) the level of TANF benefits
B) the cost of a market basket of food
C) the ratio between food and non-food costs
D) an index for changing prices
E) whether to include the value of in-kind benefits

Question 18

Public assistance alleviates some of the problems inherent to living poorly and helps get them out of poverty.

Question 19

Under TANF, all needy families with children are eligible to receive aid, but each state determines the definition of "needy."

Question 20

Under TANF, parents are now discouraged from working while receiving aid, because spending more time with parents results in lower crime, better educational performance, and greater economic success for children.

Question 21

States must subsidize childcare for as long as the parent is enrolled in the TANF program.

Question 22

Apart from being aged, blind, or disabled, eligibility requirements for SSI dictate that recipients must satisfy a means test; they must become destitute and stay that way.

Question 23

The Medicaid program pays for medical treatment for almost all of the poor population.

Question 24

Poverty benefits the nonpoor in society by keeping prices down.

Question 25

Poverty benefits the nonpoor by creating jobs and income for persons who would regulate, serve, or exploit those who are less fortunate.

Question 26

The political system in the U.S. is less open to the poor than to the middle and upper classes.

Question 27

There are two types of public assistance programs:

A) those providing cash to recipients, and those providing non-cash benefits.
B) transfer and non-transfer payments.
C) those with a certain track record and those which social scientist continue to be uncertain of.
D) those which help the poor and those which help the middle class.
E) those which help train people to work, and those which help them to find a job.

Question 28

One of the most important features of the TANF program is a(n) _________ lifetime limit on eligibility, regardless of work effort or earned income.

A) ten year
B) five year
C) two year
D) unlimited
E) fifteen year

Question 29

All of the following are welfare programs except:

A) The Tax Expenditure program
B) The Supplementary Security Income program
C) The Medicaid program
D) The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program
E) The Food Stamp program

Question 30

A significant proportion of those who are eligible for Food Stamps:

A) are really illegal immigrants.
B) are not actually eligible to receive Food Stamps.
C) use them to purchase alcohol and tobacco
D) do not receive them.
E) are middle class people attempting to "cheat" the system.

Question 31

It can be argued that the _____________ also benefit from assistance programs because recipients immediately return benefits to pay bills or purchase necessities.

A) the wealthy
B) the taxpayers
C) the government
D) the working class
E) poor who do not receive assistance

Question 32

The _______________ insures that public assistance programs do not reduce the rate of poverty while, at the same time, guaranteeing that those who are impoverished obtain help to alleviate some of their problems.

A) means test
B) cycle of poverty
C) culture of poverty
D) welfare reform
E) block grant system

Question 33

The large number of poor people in the United States

A) want to remain poor
B) only constitute a drain on the society
C) constitute a stable and unchanging aggregate of people
D) provides many benefits to the non-poor
E) ought to be ineligible to vote

Question 34

All of the following can be described as benefits of poverty to the non-poor except:

A) a group of low-skill workers is available to perform jobs no one else wants
B) prices are kept low
C) jobs are created for those who would regulate or serve the poor
D) poor persons purchase goods and services the non-poor do not want
E) all of these are benefits

Question 35

Poverty benefits the non-poor because destitute persons purchase goods and services more affluent people:

A) sell for a reduced price.
B) also desire.
C) are required by federal regulators to sell.
D) do not want.
E) are unable to purchase.

Question 36

Children are more likely to be poor than any other segments of the population.

Question 37

Despite common beliefs to the contrary, Whites are just as likely to be poor than any other racial or ethnic group.

Question 38

Single parent families are more likely to be poor than two parent families.

Question 39

Employment is a sure path out of poverty in America today.

Question 40

Advocating self-help strategies to eliminate poverty-whether as common sense or dressed up on academic jargon-is not very practical.

Question 41

One reason so many children are poor is that their parents are _______________, persons who have not acquired education or job skills.

A) people in rural areas
B) people in urban areas
C) immigrants
D) children and young adults
E) physically disabled

Question 42

Poverty is related to family structure; _____________families are more likely to be poor than other types of families, for example.

A) large (6 persons or more).
B) Southern
C) single parent
D) none of these is correct
E) Northern

Question 43

On average, the ______________ people possess, the greater the likelihood of poverty.

A) fewer the job skills
B) lower the life expectancy
C) longer the time spent receiving college loans
D) more dates prior to marriage
E) more guns

Question 44

The long-term increase in the poverty rate reflects (1) industrialization, (2) the emergence of science, and (3) the rise of capitalism.

Question 45

In a relatively short time, industrialization brought health and wealth to nations compared to the past.

Question 46

Without the emergence of science, industrialization would have been impossible.

Question 47

A culture of capitalism has no bearing on the long-term poverty rate.

Question 48

It has been true throughout American history that poverty can be escaped through hard work.

Question 49

Unlike most societies, the class structure in the United States changes over time.

Question 50

Class stability exists because people at each level use their resources to protect their advantages and pass them on to their children.

Question 51

The anomic social structure in modern societies provides everyone with the ability to succeed regardless of the values he or she has internalized

Question 52

Thousands of bootstrap entrepreneurs operate illegally, on the economic margin, unable to expand their businesses; the long-term impact is to dull ambition and people become trapped.

Question 53

The fact that public policy in the United States creates more poverty than in other nations indicates the political dominance of middle class and rich people.

Question 54

Even though unemployment rates are currently low by historical standards, there are not enough jobs for former public aid recipient (or for the poor in general) to fill.

Question 55

Poor individuals acting in their own self-interest cannot reduce the overall level of poverty.

Question 56

Data reveal that the U.S. poverty rate is higher than in comparable nations. This fact suggests that our country ______________ to maintain a larger population of impoverished persons.

A) is forced
B) none of these is correct
C) is linguistically prone
D) chooses
E) is lucky enough

Question 57

All of the following had an impact on the long-term fall in the poverty rate, except:

A) Democracy
B) Rule of Law
C) The increasing infant mortality rate
D) Industrialization
E) All these had an impact on the long-term fall in poverty

Question 58

With ________________, the proportion of higher paying, white collar jobs rose while farming and other lower paying jobs fell.

A) the fall of communism
B) industrialization
C) social reform
D) social evolution
E) occupational contraction

Question 59

Democracy _____________.

A) bases power and authority on the "will of the people"
B) has reduced discrimination against minority groups and women
C) is an imperfect process in practice
D) has led to a long-term fall in the poverty rate
E) all of the above

Question 60

Now it remains true that, regardless of industrialization and class differences in fertility, people only succeeded by hard work; _________________, however, provided a historical context in which hard work could pay off.

A) empathic understanding
B) intuitive reasoning
C) individual experience
D) organizational behavior
E) structural variables

Question 61

The rate of poverty in the U.S. reflects each of the following except:

A) the reproduction of the class structure
B) the vicious circle of poverty
C) macroeconomic policy
D) the work ethic of Americans
E) institutionalized discrimination

Question 62

Most people remain in the same occupational category as their parents and go very short distances when mobility occurs, this means that:

A) people are like lemmings.
B) America is not really the "land of opportunity."
C) the class structure is continually reproduced.
D) there is hope for all American that they will do significantly better than their parents.
E) there are now fewer occupational categories than in the past.

Question 63

Poverty, which ordinarily is temporary, combines with other difficulties, like _____________, to snare people into long-term poverty.

A) a vicious circle
B) all other classes
C) evolutionary processes
D) prophecy
E) the working class

Question 64

People who are trying to break the cycle of poverty through entrepreneurship often get thwarted by:

A) Requirements for extensive training
B) Limits on the number of jobs in an area
C) The outlawing of certain jobs
D) Their lack of bureaucratic sophistication
E) All of these

Question 65

Since World War II, U.S. policy has focused primarily on keeping ______________ in check; this choice has a practical consequence: it maintains or increases the level of poverty.

A) discrimination
B) unemployment
C) economic development
D) starvation
E) inflation

Question 66

The nation's main pubic assistance program, Temporary Aid to Needy Families, posits that families will move "from welfare to work"; but this outcome is unlikely, given the . .

A) discrimination that still exists in America today.
B) rates of consumption.
C) divine intervention that maintain poverty.
D) structure of the economy.
E) lack of personal responsibility in America today