SOCI 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Street People, Boogie 2Nite, Nimby
Lecture 11/07/17
❏The poverty debate: individuals vs sociological causes
❏Assumption that we are the authors of our own lives (not a sociological
assumption)
❏Self-help: the self is responsible for helping the self
❏The idea that your faith is something you created and if you’re not
successful it’s because you didn’t do it right
❏Culture of poverty thesis: the poor made bad choices and tended to prioritize
immediate gratification instead of delayed gratification
❏Are we blaming the victim? Are these behaviors the cause of poverty or
symptoms of poverty?
❏Not looking at how the system is rigged against the poor
❏Middle class and wealthy have ways of chances to make mistakes
and be excused for it
❏The struggle: How do we acknowledge behaviors that are not geared towards
upward mobility/restricting getting out of poverty?
❏Edin and Reed: Why don’t the poor marry?
❏Definitions
❏poverty/poverty line:
❏The more people in a household, the higher the expectation will be
for your income to be able to get above the poverty line
❏Sociology definition of poverty: what kind of income do you have
to have to take part in the mainstream American Life/ how much
income do you need to have to have a job?
❏Money for the proper clothes, proper shoes, transportation,
being clean and healthy
❏Objective definition; but varies depending on location
❏Subjective definition: how the subject feels about deprivation
compared to others
❏How long does one have to be excluded from mainstream of
society before they get classified as poor?
❏Defining poverty could be subjective or objective
❏Social Barriers
❏Marriage rate among the poor
❏Chronic long-term poor people; the marriage rates among poor
people started to decline during the 1980s
❏The poor are 2x likely to be unmarried
❏Poor people are more likely to have children/more children
❏The desire to marry has gone down
❏Hope to get married hardly varies between income levels, race, or
occupation, or education
❏The expectation to get married is lower among poor people, but it’s
higher than the rate of their actual marriages
❏What marriage means is different now compared to the 60s and
70s (premarital sex, living together, women’s validation in society,
having children, etc.)
❏Marriage does not change or affect people’s lives anymore,
it’s more like a status symbol that comes with expectations
❏If the poor no longer see marriage as a necessity to having a kid,
they’re more likely to not get married
❏Most pregnancies among poor people are
accidents/unplanned
❏The poor tend to believe that financial stability is necessary for marriage
❏Need to have money for a decent marriage, mortgage, car,
insurance, furniture, etc.
❏Relationship quality- the poor often have lousy relationships
❏Higher rates of domestic violence
❏Involvement in crime, drugs, and alcohol
❏Tolerable in a boyfriend or girlfriend but not a husband or wife
❏Aversion to divorce: marriage is being treated as an important part of life
that you shouldn’t go into casually because you don’t want to get a
divorce
❏Other people’s kids: not wanting to be the parent to someone else’s kids
❏Economic Barriers
❏Low male earnings; low earning = instability -> being single (also
applicable to females)
❏Women may not want to rely on the man’s earnings
❏Policy prescriptions?
❏The poor already value marriage, so it’s not a question of changing values
❏Doing things to improve economic stability is more important
❏Don’t encourage poor people to get married just for the sake of getting
married
Lecture 11/9/17
❏Homelessness: the shocking thing many try to ignore
❏People get pulled out of politics and dating when they’re homeless
❏Definitions
Document Summary
The poverty debate: individuals vs sociological causes. Assumption that we are the authors of our own lives (not a sociological assumption) Self-help: the self is responsible for helping the self. The idea that your faith is something you created and if you"re not successful it"s because you didn"t do it right. Culture of poverty thesis: the poor made bad choices and tended to prioritize immediate gratification instead of delayed gratification. Not looking at how the system is rigged against the poor. Middle class and wealthy have ways of chances to make mistakes and be excused for it. The more people in a household, the higher the expectation will be for your income to be able to get above the poverty line. Money for the proper clothes, proper shoes, transportation, being clean and healthy. Objective definition; but varies depending on location. Subjective definition: how the subject feels about deprivation compared to others. Defining poverty could be subjective or objective.
