SOCI 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Snapple, Meritocracy, Perverse Incentive
8 Jun 2018
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Lecture 6 (September 26th, 2017)
Issues Relating to Poverty
! Poverty rates for cities in large CMAs, Canada, 1995
•!Another way of looking at poverty is in the aggregate
differences in social problems, if you will. And try to
understand what differences exist
•!The right would say: you’ve got a higher concentration of
people who lack ambition and talent, which is why certain
cities come at the top
•!Stereotypes can be thought of in the aggregate as well –
stereotypes can be applied to aggregation of places
•!The trends are actually fairly consistent
! The new poor
•!In the past few decades a large number of blue collar workers have lost their jobs due to plant
closures or automation.
•!Most of these workers have little or no experience in unemployment and had previously been
long-term workers.
o!Particularly in manufacturing
o!You had good paying union jobs, low skills but relatively high pay, no need for
university just do your time on the factory floor and you basically class a middle-class
living. When these jobs left, in particularly large numbers, it left a fairly large
population that was not able to get a similar part of return because they didn’t possess
these skills – they couldn’t make that middle-class living on low skill.
o!They went downward in their economic situation
•!While the vast majority find new jobs, about half of them make less money than they did
before (downward mobility).
•!About 15% can’t find new jobs.
•!These folks are often considered the new poor.
•!The people who are loosing out or who have really lost out in this globalization effort
•!Outsourcing and automation in particular
o!“A robot can do my job”
! The working poor
•!Having a job does not guarantee that you will be removed from poverty
•!Do people who work full-time year-round-jobs deserve in our society to live outside the
poverty? In other words, it’s quite difficult to maintain the position of the right side (“they’re
lazy…”) if they’re working full time and they’re still under the poverty line
o!Debatable issue
•!100s of thousands of full-time workers are below the poverty line.
•!Millions of part-time workers were in poverty as well
•!Minimum wage in the U.S. is $7.25 per hour (over 2 million workers).
o!$15,080 for full-time, year round worker (poverty level is 18,500 for a family of
3, thus the number out of poverty is reduced).
o!Complicated by location. Wage needed for basic needs.
"!$18.90 in Denver, $21 in LA, $25 in Washington DC.
•!In Quebec the minimum wage is $11.25 an hour.
o!In cities over 500K pop, the poverty level is $34,002 for a family of 3).
"!A full-time worker who earns minimum wage receives $23,400 (52 weeks
X 40 hours per week).
•!I can work full-time at minimum wage, and still not be above the poverty line
! Myths about poverty
•!Much of the debate related to the solutions for social problems among politicians and citizens
has to do with certain misunderstandings/myths about those who live in poverty.
•!Despite the fact that Canada is a very open society relative to others, the probability is still
the greatest that you will die in the social class you were born into
•!Making it difficult for people to climb out
! Myth # 1 - Refusal to Work
•!Not a lot of evidence to support this claim
•!People don’t want to work – people are lazy – you can’t give them a certain safety net
because you’re allowing them to survive in this laziness. The only way to get lazy people to
work is to get under the point where it’s either work or die (starve)
•!Some critics of poor relief suggest that the poor are in the condition they are in because they
refuse to work.
o!Reality – 89.7% of poor households had at least one worker.
o!Most hold dead-end jobs that provide no benefits and pay the minimum wage.
"!It’s not actually the lack of willingness for work that is leading to poverty, but
actually the bad jobs that poor people have that don’t pay them enough to live
above the poverty line
o!Low wages are often seen as the source of the problem by most sociologists.
•!In 1970, a full-time minimum wage earner had a standard of living 17% higher than the
poverty level.
o!In Quebec, you’re about 25-30% below the poverty line if you work full time at
minimum wage and in Quebec, we have pretty high minimum wage, so what does
that tell you about people who are poor and what do they deserve for working full
time? The answer to that question seems to have changed. A few decades ago was
that if you worked full time, you deserved to live about the poverty line. And today,
the answer seems to be no.
•!2 out of 5 poor people out of work are either disabled, elderly, or unable to find full-time or
full year employment.
! Myth #2: welfare dependency
•!Critics of a liberal welfare policy claim that such a system creates a perverse incentive to
remain poor.
o!You give the poor a free ride
•!These critics suggest that by giving poor a “free ride” they are less likely to engage in the
workforce.
Document Summary
Poverty rates for cities in large cmas, canada, 1995: another way of looking at poverty is in the aggregate differences in social problems, if you will. 3, thus the number out of poverty is reduced). o complicated by location. . 90 in denver, in la, in washington dc. In quebec the minimum wage is . 25 an hour. o in cities over 500k pop, the poverty level is ,002 for a family of 3). A full-time worker who earns minimum wage receives ,400 (52 weeks. I can work full-time at minimum wage, and still not be above the poverty line. The answer to that question seems to have changed. A few decades ago was that if you worked full time, you deserved to live about the poverty line. And today, the answer seems to be no: 2 out of 5 poor people out of work are either disabled, elderly, or unable to find full-time or full year employment.
