Exam 1

-what are the rewards we calue most?

- what we value in US migh tbe different than what other countries value (money, fame, attractiveness)

-focus on individualism

-merit or acheivment

-equal oppurtunity

-"you get what you deserve"

-equal opportunity not equal outcome

-inequality is relatively stable: change occurs slowly

-change reflects shifts in dominant ideologies of inequality

-we have to learn to think differently

-one social group expropriates a resource produced by another social group and prevents them from realizing the full value of their effort in producing the resource

-ex: gender wage gap, paying immigrants less

-one social group restricts access to a scarce resource through outright denial or by exercising monopoly control

-socially defined process of exclusion

-ex: educational success is hoarded in wealthy areas, gay marriage

-class is primary driver of inequality

-based on RELATIONS of production

-classes are always in conflict

-anyone who sells labor=worker/proletariat

-anyone who buys labor for profit=capitalist/bourgeoisie

-inequality is the competitive struglle over limited resources

-one's place in society is dteremined by the combo of class, status, and party

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-how one gets their income and how much income they make defines social class

-groups with common market situation (how they earn money and how much they earn) that also share common mobility patterns

-class conflict is not inherent

-Weber- no because individuals may see identity based more stronly in status or party affiliation

-Marx- yes classes are constantly in conflict and their interests are contantly conflicting

-system of dispositions through which we perceive, judge, and act in the world

-hasn't kept up with inflation so it is now worth less than it was 30 years ago

-applies primarily to teenagers

-does not explain growing wages at top of distribution

wealthy people dont have to gove as much back as they did

-government on the shoulders of middle-class families

-if we aren't going to tax the richest part of the population then we have to sacrifice things (funding for schools, roads, police)

-increased fro all income groups

-rising tide lifts all boats

-eglatarian capitalism

-trend shows growth until recent recession

-large increase for top (whites and asains)

-little change for middle and bottom (blacks and hispanics)

-declined

-rising tide lift all boats

-eglatarian capitalism

-increased

-growing share of income to those at top, declining to those at bottom

-known as the great u turn

-relaitve mobility did occur, but less then before 1970

-shows increasingly rigid class structure

-fewer rags to riches stories

-harder to move from bottom

-declining intergenerational mobility

-basic needs met for most in society

-initial stage of consumer society

-lots of public spending on services and infrastructure

-even more spending on consumer goods

-aspirational spending

-families adapt to aspirational gap by working more hours, having wives work, and credit cards

-less support for public spending

-decline in share of workers covered by unions

-no other institution holds firms accountable for distribution of parts

-shift in the industrial base from manufacturing to service jobs

-limits good jobs available to less educated workers

-impacts union base

-threat of job loss motivates workers to take lower pay

-supple of workers at the low end of the income distribution is greater than the demand for their work

-technology replaces labor-reduces demand for the skill of blue-collar work

-rising use of technology increase demand for "symbolic analysists" to manage information technology

-change in the immigrants coming to the US with more low-skill workers competing for low wage jobs

-immigrants cannot demand workplace rights so are expolited by employers with low pay

-trade balance does NOT favor US anymore

-the US imports more good than it exports

-less demand for US goods and services, hence less demand for the labor of US workers

-sets off chain reaction of industrial restructuring, immigration, deunionization, and great inequality

-Americans want lots of goods so goods must be relatively inexpensive

-import goods from countries with cheap labor

-most wealth today come from high salaries in the labor market

-highest paid workers (CEO's) make much mroe $$ than average worker

-americans show no resistance to the change

-the situation is unique to US-do not see patterns in Europe

-historical decline in the tax rate assesssed on the highest earners so not much difference in tax rate between family making $50k and that making $25mil a year

-corporate taz rates hace also declined and now a smaller share of government revenue comes from corporations