Deck 4: Poverty and Disrepute

Question 1

Most Americans are ambivalent toward the poor, feeling both compassion and scorn.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Melvin Lerner argued that the affluent and privileged deserve their affluence and privilege.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Today, the poorest strata in the United States are the poorest people in the world.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

In 1980, the United States was the richest country at every decile level, that is, at each 10% income level; today, that is no longer true.

Question 5

Today, the median income in the United States is higher than it was a generation ago.

Question 6

Most of the poorest states in the United States are in the South.

Question 7

All of the states in New England have a higher than average per capita income.

Question 8

Statistically speaking, poverty is strongly related to a lack of education.

Question 9

Melvin Lerner argued that the poor deserve to be poor.

Question 10

Thomas Robert Malthus argued that the more affluent have an obligation to help the poor with generous welfare benefits.

Question 11

Max Weber argued that revolution is the only way to eliminate poverty.

Question 12

Over time, compared with the other affluent countries, the poor in the United States are declining in relative income.

Question 13

According to Max Weber, the wealthy and privileged develop a theodicity of good fortune-an ideology that says that the rich deserve to be rich.

Question 14

David Matza argued that American sociologists have largely ignored the issue of the disreputable poor because they don't want to be accused of stigmatizing the poor.

Question 15

Poverty is unrelated to deviance.

Question 16

As a general rule, relative to its recorded or official economy, the less economically developed a nation is, the larger its underground, "shadow," or informal economy is.

Question 17

Statistically speaking, the higher the education, the longer someone is likely to live.

Question 18

In the United States, whites and African Americans are equally likely to be unemployed.

Question 19

Most Americans feel that poverty is inferiorizing in major ways.

Question 20

Max Weber argued that the wealthy and privileged deserve their wealth.

Question 21

The Indian economist Amartya Sen argued that:

A) Shame is at the core of the experience of poverty.
B) The wealthy and the privileged deserve their wealth and privileges.
C) Only revolution will bring about an equalitarian society.
D) It would be best for the society if the poor and unmotivated starved to death.
E) The wealthy and privileged develop ideologies that reassure them that their wealth and privileged is deserved.

Question 22

Which of the following statements is true? In the US, over time, the income gap between rich and poor:

A) is growing.
B) is narrowing.
C) remains the same.
D) remains unknown and unknowable.
E) None of the above

Question 23

How does poverty relate to deviance? Poverty is:

A) one cause of deviance, but not a form of deviance.
B) a form of deviance but not a cause of deviance.
C) both a cause and a form of deviance.
D) neither a cause nor a form of deviance.
E) none of the above

Question 24

Robert K. Merton's anomie theory argues that "the greatest pressure toward deviation" is exerted on the members of the:

A) higher strata
B) upper-middle strata
C) lower-middle strata
D) lower strata
E) none of the above

Question 25

Chapter 4, on poverty, focuses mainly on the:

A) higher crime rate of the poor.
B) higher rates of deviance, but not crime, among the poor.
C) stigma or shame of being poor.
D) higher rates of mobility in the US in comparison with other industrialized countries.
E) none of the above

Question 26

In which country or countries of the world are incomes most equitably distributed:

A) Scandinavian
B) the US
C) Asian
D) African
E) Latin American

Question 27

Among which of the following countries is the Gini coefficient the highest?

A) South Africa
B) the United Kingdom
C) the US
D) China
E) Germany

Question 28

In the past quarter century, in the US, income inequality has:

A) declined
B) increased
C) has remained the same
D) remains unknown and unknowable
E) none of the above

Question 29

In which of the following countries are the poorest layers of the poor the poorest?

A) Norway
B) Canada
C) Austria
D) the US
E) the Netherlands

Question 30

The relationship between a state's percent of poor people and the percent of its well-educated people is:

A) positive-the higher the percent of poor people, the higher the percent of well- educated people.
B) negative-the higher the percent of poor people, the lower the percent of well- educated people.
C) random-there is no statistical relationship between poverty and education.
D) unknown and unknowable
E) none of the above

Question 31

Among the 17 most affluent countries of the world, the health of Americans is:

A) the worst
B) the best
C) at about the average among the most affluent countries
D) unknown and unknowable
E) none of the above

Question 32

There are two major exceptions to the generalization that, globally, real incomes have grown since the 2008 recession. Those two exceptions are:

A) the US and Canada
B) the Scandinavian countries
C) Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe
D) sub-Saharan Africa and most of Latin America
E) Southeast Asia and Australia

Question 33

Over the past generation or so in the United States, the life expectancy of:

A) both the most affluent and the poorest men has improved.
B) both the most affluent and the poorest men has deteriorated.
C) the most affluent men has improved, but among the poorest men, it has not changed at all.
D) both the most affluent and the poorest men has not changed at all.
E) both the most affluent and the poorest men remains unknown and unknowable.

Question 34

The official rate of unemployment in the US is:

A) about 10 percent
B) about half the work force
C) a third of the work force
D) less than 1 percent
E) under 4 percent

Question 35

The informal, unofficial, off-the-books, or "underground" economy in the US makes up about:

A) half the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
B) a third of the GDP
C) 10 percent of the GDP
D) about three-quarters of the GDP.
E) None of the above

Question 36

The poorest large cities in the United States-the cities in which the highest percentage of the population is living in poverty-are:

A) New York and Boston
B) the "rust belt" cities of the Midwest, such as Cleveland and Detroit
C) Los Angeles and San Francisco
D) Houston and Dallas
E) Miami and Ft. Lauderdale

Question 37

Which of the following countries has the highest rate of deaths per million children?

A) Italy
B) Spain
C) Japan
D) the US
E) Sweden

Question 38

When sociologists point out the disrepute of the poverty-stricken, they:

A) blame the victim
B) praise the victim
C) attempt to understand the source of poverty and disrepute
D) deny that there is a relationship between poverty and disrepute
E) emphasize the random relationship between poverty and disrepute

Question 39

Which of the following theorists and social thinkers most harshly stigmatized the poor?

A) Max Weber
B) Thomas Malthus
C) Amartya Sen
D) David Matza
E) Loic Wacquant

Question 40

More than half of the poorest rural communities in the United States are located in just two states. These states are:

A) New Hampshire and Vermont
B) New York and New Jersey
C) Oregon and Washington State
D) South Dakota and Texas
E) Maryland and Pennsylvania

Question 41

Anomie theory argues that:

A) Anomie is the major cause of poverty.
B) Anomie is a major consequence of poverty.
C) Poverty is unrelated to anomie.
D) Anomie causes affluence.
E) None of the above

Question 42

Erich Goode, the author of Deviant Behavior, argues that sociologically, poverty is:

A) one cause of deviance, but not a form of deviance.
B) a form of deviance but not a cause of deviance.
C) both a cause and a form of deviance.
D) neither a cause nor a form of deviance.
E) none of the above

Question 43

According to Merton's anomie theory, the "double failures" of the society are most likely to have retreated or sunk into the morass of:

A) organized crime
B) street crime such as robbery
C) political activism such as revolution
D) drug dealing
E) permanent poverty

Question 44

According to Wilem Bonger and other Marxists, under capitalism, the lower strata of the society, who have become immobilized by hopelessness and a sense of political futility, are referred to as the:

A) lumpenproletariat
B) anomie class
C) acquisitive class
D) criminal class
E) bourgeoisie

Question 45

According to the World Health Organization, over the span of the past quarter-century, worldwide:

A) more people live in poverty than ever before.
B) fewer people live in poverty than ever before.
C) the level and rate of poverty remain unchanged.
D) the level and rate of poverty remain unknowable.
E) none of the above

Question 46

In the past quarter of a century or so, the income inequality in the United States:

A) declined
B) increased
C) has remained the same
D) remains unknown and unknowable
E) none of the above

Question 47

In which areas of the world is the Gini coefficient the highest-that is, where income is distributed the most unequally?

A) China
B) Western Europe
C) Latin America and Africa
D) the United States and the United Kingdom
E) Russia and the former Soviet countries and its former satellites

Question 48

The relationship between a US state's percent of poor people and the percent of its well-educated people is:

A) positive-the higher the percent of poor people, the higher the percent of well- educated people.
B) negative-the higher the percent of poor people, the lower the percent of well- educated people.
C) random-there is no statistical relationship between poverty and education.
D) unknown and unknowable
E) none of the above

Question 49

Among the 17 more affluent countries of the world, the health of Americans is:

A) the worst
B) the best
C) at about the average among the most affluent countries
D) unknown and unknowable
E) none of the above

Question 50

According to health expert Michael Marmot, statistically speaking,

A) the higher the education the better health is likely to be.
B) the higher the education, the worse health is likely to be.
C) there is a random statistical relationship between education and health.
D) the relationship between education and health is unknown and unknowable.
E) none of the above

Question 51

Over the past generation or so in the United States, the life expectancy of:

A) both the most affluent and the poorest women has improved.
B) both the most affluent and the poorest women has deteriorated.
C) the most affluent women has improved but among the poorest women, it has not changed at all.
D) both the most affluent and the poorest women has not changed at all.
E) both the most affluent and the poorest women remains unknown and unknowable.

Question 52

In the United States:

A) The rich are getting richer and the income of the poor is stagnating.
B) Both the rich and the poor are getting richer.
C) Both the rich and the poor are getting poorer.
D) The rich are getting poorer and the poor are getting richer.
E) None of the above

Question 53

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Poverty and deviance are unrelated.
B) The relationship between poverty and deviance is positive; the greater the poverty, the greater the likelihood that someone will be labeled as deviant.
C) The relationship between poverty and deviance is negative-the greater the poverty, the lower the likelihood that someone will be labeled as deviant.
D) The relationship between poverty and deviance is unknown and unknowable.
E) None of the above is true.

Question 54

Robert K. Merton's anomie theory argues that:

A) poverty breeds deviancies.
B) poverty is in and of itself a form of deviance.
C) poverty is unrelated to deviance.
D) the relationship between poverty and deviance is unknown and unknowable.
E) none of the above

Question 55

In your opinion is poverty in the US today worse than, or not as bad, as it was a generation ago? Why? What indicators tell us one way or the other?

Question 56

Do you think it is fair to stigmatize the poor for being poor? Do the poor deserve being labeled as disreputable? Social class involves distributing society's respect and disrespect on the basis of achievement. Is disrespecting the poor an inevitable consequence of social stratification? Is disrespect given to the poor a mirror opposite of granting respect to persons of higher achievement?

Question 57

In most societies, including the United States, social class, income, and achievement are strongly related to educational achievement. Consequently, if a lack of education results in a lack of achievement, is being poor nobody's fault but the poor? Or is there more to the story than that?

Question 58

Is social mobility difficult to achieve in American society? Is it harder than in other societies? In a society with a great deal of mobility, the achievement or wealth of one's parents do not influence one's own achievement or attainment of wealth? Is this true of the United States? What do you think causes social mobility? Why is it higher in some societies than others?

Question 59

What's your response to someone who is homeless? Someone who asks you for money on the street? Are you repelled? Do you feel sorry for that person? Pity? Do you give that person money? Is it your responsibility to help him or her? Whose responsibility is it? Do you disrespect him or her? Why? Do you feel that poverty is a "bottomless pit" that can never by filled-a social problem that can never be solved?