Friday, February 26, 1999
Announcements:

• Reaction paper to the film shown in class today is due next Wednesday but students should not start writing it until after Monday’s lecture. The paper should be no more than two pages, double spaced, and typed.

1. Poverty in the USA

1. Poverty – an inevitable product of all societies
2. Relative Poverty – comparison of things in relation to people who have more. These people have the necessities of life, they just think they are poor through subjective analysis. Everyone is guilty of it. Example: A lower class man compares himself to an upper class man.
3. Absolute Poverty – lack of economic resources needed to have the basic necessities of life.
4. Abject Poverty – lowest of the low on the poverty spectrum – no people in the US live in abject poverty, only people in Africa and other very poor nations.
5. Poverty Threshold or Poverty Line – In 1997, the poverty line for a family of four was $16,306. People in India would be considered very rich if they made $16,306 a year. NOTE: The Poverty rate has dropped to 13.3%, which is 35.6 million people.

1. Who Are The Poor?

1. Race and Ethnicity – most poor are White, but most Whites are not poor.
2. Sex and Age

1. Female-headed households are doubly poor than Male-headed households. 2/3 of all adults living in poverty are women. Feminization of Poverty – the concentration of poverty is among women.
2. Children – in 1995, 40% of poor were children. 1 in 4 children in the US live in poverty.

1. Highest number of children in poverty are in single parent households
2. The US has the highest child poverty rate of all industrialized nations.
3. Poverty is highest among Hispanic families when compared to Whites and Blacks.

1. Residence of Poor

1. 42% of poor live in cities
2. 32% of poor live in suburbs
3. Most poor people live in either Mississippi, Louisiana, or the Appalachia states.
4. In Chicago, the Robert Taylor Housing Project has the highest percentage of poor people in the US.

1. Film: Children in Poverty

1. Intro: A photographer went to all different cities to take photographs of the nations poor people. The lives of three women, who live in Camden, NJ, were revealed.
2. Mary Cherry – 27 years old, 7 kids – says she gets really frustrated having to raise her kids around drunks and drug dealers – Phone calls cost her a lot of money – she cannot find adequate housing because she has so many kids.
3. Teresa Merrit – lost her husband, job, and house. Has a little girl and is scared that she might get raped or kidnapped or something.
4. Olivia Blanding – not below the poverty line but has a tough time paying her bills. By taking the people on or just above the poverty line the actual level of poor people would be raised significantly. She had her son arrested when she caught him selling drugs. Selling drugs is very easy money for kids who want to make money.
5. Ruth Sidel (sociologist) – says that children are growing up in a poor subculture. America is telling the poor that they do not matter. Most of the poor are female-headed households. By the year 2000, half of all children in the US will experience poverty during their lives. The children have no control and are stuck in their situations most likely for life. Poor people are the ultimate outsiders and Americans are encouraging the cycle of poverty by breeding a whole group of people who have no remorse whatsoever.