SOC 1105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Omar Khadr, Progressive Tax, Socioeconomic Status
27 Apr 2018
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SOC 1105 – JAN 19, 2018
CONTD
THE THREE DIMENSIONAL VIEWS
• A powerful actor can persuade a weaker actor to adopt beliefs or behaviors
that serve the interests of the powerful
• Vies are accepted or assumed to be correct
• Example – sales people – I need you to buy this TV cause of these perks but
do you need it; pushy
• Power always involved behavior – cant just make into action
• Power cannot be positive without exercising it (example: class gets quite
when teacher walks in)
• Powerful often attracts powerful people
• Power by persuasion can be used to maintain the status quo (example –
maintain students at university to maintain gpa)
WHY IS AGENDA SETTING IN POLITICS IMPORTANT
• Mass media influences politicians and policy makers
• Subordinate individuals may desire change but feel it is useless to try –
leading to inactivity
WHEN IS POSER LEASST VISIBLE
Invisible power influence:
• Ability of a peer to keep challenges from arising in the first place
• Capacity of a power to convince the subordinate groups that is in their best
interests to support the interest quo
WHAT IS THE STATE?
State includes all the formal policing situations and legal systems of any society
Through voting, police things get changed, for example lesbian marriage was
changed through policy because it was gone through supreme court challenging,
marijuana
Forces contracts to make market economy work – we are in capitalist society and
makes us work in contract
How do stare regulate the economy
• LAWS AND POLCICES TO PREVENT LARGE CORPORATIONS FROM DRIVING
SMALLER COMPETITORS OUT OF BUSINESS
• Insider trading – Martha Stewart sold her info and stalk which was going ot
go down next day so went to jail
• False advertising – 4k TV,
• Unsafe working environments – regulate that, people working in mines, brick
layers, building on campus that have estebus
• Blocking of compensation for innocent third parties when corporate actions
cause harms
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Example – omar khadr – stepped in to deal with that
HOW DO STATES IMPACT WHO GETS WHAT IN A SOCIETY
• True or False: Policy will always favor the powerful. Always? Some of the
time?
WHO WINS POLICY OR POLITICS
• What are the broad patterns burned in the day to day political conflicts and
outcomes
• Tax policies:
• Antipoverty programs: OSAP, soup kitchens,
TAX POLICES AND POWER
• What the tax policies tell us about how power it distributed in the US?
o US has long standing progressive income tax system
▪ So does Canada
▪ Go shopping in US for shopping because its cheaper
o Tax burdens or high earners have declined dramatically in the past 30
years
o Tax cuts in high earners appeared during the Reagan, Bush and
Clinton presidencies
o Investment income of super rich and wealth often sheltered through
loopholes and the breaks
TWO VIEWS OF CORPORATE TAX RATES SINCE WW 2
• Illustrates decline in corporate income tax as a percentage of total federal tax
avenue
• Graph on the bottom average of the tax payers is lower than the tax rate
o Shows that the actual average taxes aid by corporations are far lower
than the official tax rate
ANTIVPOVERTY POLICY
• Why is there so much child poverty in the US? (We have it too)
o Hypothetical poverty (based on the market incomes before
government actions) in countries with rates as high as those in the US
have lower actual poverty rates
o No country does as little to reduce poverty as the US
▪ Society is messy – a lot of people are under poverty line
PRE-TAX ND POST TAX TRANSFER POVERTY RATE
• Why are so many Americans so poor?
o Inability to reduce level of poverty to same degree as other rich
countries
▪ Example in Canada, if you lose a job you have social mechanism
that you can got o for help, help exists
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
WHO SETS THE AGENDA
• Why are there only two political parties in America and why die sit matter
• Electoral system established by constitution makes it virtually impossible for
viable third party
• Lack of proportional representation does not allow minority parties to gain
representation
MONEY AND AMERICAN POLITICS
• American politics are expensive
• Most candidate can support come from wealthy individuals, large
corporations, and political action committees
• High-spending media campaigns are most efficient way to reach voters
THE THIRD DIMENSION
DO AMERICANS BELIEVE IN POLICIES BENEFITTING THE POWERFUL?
• Political systems favors preferences of powerful
• The rich should pay, more taxes than the poor
• Taxes are high
• Government should spend more on social program
• Market is better at solving social problems than the government
CONTRADICTRY VIEWS
• What contradictory views do Americans hold on policies involving the
unequal distribution of income?
• Support for none equality but no for higher taxes to achieve it
• Conservative egalitarians – don’t want to pay foreign taxes but want social
programs
• A tax that us paid when someone dies and leaves money to someone other
than a spouse
• Taxing estates is a common way for governments to raise revenue to pay for
social programs
• Americans may simply be unrealistically optimistic, about their chances of
someday becoming wealthy
• Although there is conflicting evidence as to whether people with better
information were more likely to oppose the law
CONSLUSION
• When we think is sociological imagination what influences those two levels –
micro and macro level
• How do we influence people at macro and micro level with power?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Why is agenda setting in politics important maintain students at university to maintain gpa) leading to inactivity. State includes all the formal policing situations and legal systems of any society. Through voting, police things get changed, for example lesbian marriage was changed through policy because it was gone through supreme court challenging, marijuana. Forces contracts to make market economy work we are in capitalist society and. Smaller competitors out of business go down next day so went to jail cause harms: example omar khadr stepped in to deal with that. How do states impact who gets what in a society: true or false: policy will always favor the powerful. Who wins policy or politics: what are the broad patterns burned in the day to day political conflicts and outcomes, tax policies, antipoverty programs: osap, soup kitchens, Clinton presidencies: investment income of super rich and wealth often sheltered through loopholes and the breaks.
