SOCIOL 1Z03 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Barbara Ehrenreich, Institutional Racism, Meritocracy

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCIOL 1Z03
• Professor: Sandra Colevecchia

Document Summary

Evaluate the following statement: meritocracy trumps inequality structures--if you work hard enough and are determined enough you will succeed. Meritocracy is the idea that success happens in result of hard work so, everyone has an equal chance at being successful. Intergenerational occupational mobility - the idea that if your parents are rich you"ll be rich, but if your parents are poor, most likely you will be poor as well. Most people stay within their parents" social class. From a marxist perspective this is problematic because they are blaming others for why they haven"t succeeded. Evaluate the following statement: poor people are lazy and don"t want to work. She went undercover to see if she could survive working a minimum wage job. She went to see if she could pay rent, buy food, etc. just by this minimum wage job and she had no kids, had a car and was healthy so she was already at an advantage going into this.