Thinking About Poverty

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Thinking About Poverty I. Defining and Measuring
Poverty III. Data and Trends IV. William Julius
Wilson A New Type of Poverty
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• From the World Bank
• Extreme economic poverty (consumption level of
  less than 1 per day) 1.1 billion people (17 of
  worlds population
• 2 poverty line 2.7 billion people (42 of
  worlds population)
• From the U.S. Census Bureau
• 12.5 of U.S. population (37.3 million people)
  below the poverty line in 2007
• Poverty threshold for family of 4 21,203

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Two Ways of Defining Poverty

• Absolute poverty a basket of goods for
  subsistence
• Unchanging (at least in theory)
• Relative poverty a relation to a communitys
  standard of living
• e.g. below ½ the median family income
• Changes over time

Which type of poverty exists in the US?
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• The Orshansky Formula
• Poverty threshold first set during Kennedy
  administration in early 1960s
• Economist Mollie Orshansky
• Average family spends 1/3 of its income on food
• Poverty level therefore could be determined by
  calculating the cost of the minimum nutritious
  diet and multiplying it by three
• Whats the problem with the Orshansky formula
  today?

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The poverty line established in the early 1960s
was 50 of the median income of the time
If the poverty line had been maintained at 50 of
median family income, the poverty rate and
population today would be substantially higher
todayover 22 and over 60 million Americans
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War on Poverty got underway in late 1964
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Some Other Facts about Poverty

• 70 of people below the poverty line are white,
  25 are black, 4 Asian/Pacific Islanders, about
  1 Native American
• The poverty rate for African Americans is 25
  for Hispanics, 22 for Asians, 10, and for
  Non-Hispanic Whites, 8
• A little over half of families in poverty are
  female-headed
• Children under 18 have by far the highest
  poverty rate (about 16-17)

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But it is social security that has the biggest
impact on poverty (although mainly for seniors)
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Government transfer programs reduce poverty
substantially, especially for seniors
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William Julius Wilson, Jobless Poverty A New
Form of Social Dislocation in the Inner-city
Ghetto Why does he call this a new type of
poverty? Why is this significant?
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The consequences of high neighborhood
joblessness are more devastating than those of
high neighborhood poverty. A neighborhood in
which people are poor but employed is much
different than a neighborhood in which people are
poor and jobless. When Work Disappears shows
that many of todays problems in the inner-city
ghetto neighborhoodscrime, family dissolution,
welfare, low levels of social organization, and
so onare fundamentally a consequence of the
disappearance of work. (p. 143)
What alternative explanations is he implicitly
arguing against?
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Lets try to diagram Wilsons argument and look
at the policy conclusion that he draws from his
analysis.
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Structural Changes In the Economy and Society
Cultural and BehavioralEffects
Jobless Poverty
Lets use Wilsons article to unpack this
process
Elijah Andersons book allows us to explore these
effects in more detailto see how they play out
in the lives of poor people in Philadelphia
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Student Film Down Germantown Avenue A Visual
Introduction to Elijah Anderson's Code of the
Street
http//sociology.camden.rutgers.edu/curriculum/cod
e_film.htm