Poverty as a Social Condition
Now I am writing this paper as a final paper from TSOC 165. A big thanks to Prof. Velasquez and two authors James M. Henslin “Down To Earth Sociology”, Peter L. Callero “The Myth of Individualism” and all of the contributions which come from my classmates. I am going to pick “Poverty” for my topic by this time. From [1] “What Does Living In Poverty Really Mean?” I can see the article showed the main point is the gap between rich and poor in our society now. So what does poverty mean? "In the United States, the definition is an idea of absolute poverty. What that means is we 're looking at how much money you need to support a particular standard of living, to buy a certain amount of calories, a certain amount of vitamins, to buy a certain standard of housing.” Do you believe poverty happening in the U.S.? It’s so hard to believe. The reason I am saying this because when I was in Vietnam there was so many people told me about a definition of American (American = Heaven and Superpower). Superpower? Basically Superpower is a country ranked first in the international system and the ability to influence events and project power on a worldwide scope. Furthermore, someone also called the United States of America is “Promised Land.” It seems this is something paradoxical, but the truth is in "Heaven" or “Promised Land” also filled with poor people. According to the article [1] “What Does Living In Poverty Really Mean?” there’s one important thing when it mentioned Poverty as a social condition. “If you don 't have enough money to meet those social expectations, people will think of you as poor and you will think of yourself as poor.” This one makes me remember my response paper #2 when I discussed [2] “The Power of Social Class.” I also described that social class is the master of society and all individuals in the same social context. They are the same or equal to assets or income, education level or cultural, caste or social prestige, advancement possibilities in social order. What about Social Stratification? Clearly, Stratification is the social segmentation is the division of society into different social strata in economic status, occupation, education, life style, artistic tastes, etc. However, Social Stratification often associated with social inequality. Just a basic example about poverty as a social condition, Bill Gates – former CEO of Microsoft Company, so he can make $200 million a day, which means he can buy whatever he wants or making any investment he plans to invest. In contrast, a Walmart worker who earns $8.85 per hour, which means he is a working-class and he have had a lot of things to think and deal in his life to take himself or maybe his family. Oh man, this is really a huge number. This is just kind of a comparison between an upper class vs. working class as a social condition. Another thing that I’ve learned and really want to discuss is “Economy and Social Construction” that related to social condition. Why is Economy? Economy is a way to help people control and managing money and other resources. As we know there are three basic things in …show more content…
For example, the good thing is food stamps. Why good? Because food stamp means as a form of welfare of the American government to help the poor, give them a sum of 187 dollars/per month (one person/household) to buy food only (http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/how-much-could-i-receive). You can say that’s not a big number if you are rich; however, if you are poor that means a lot. “The explosion of food stamps in this country is not just a fiscal issue for me,” said Representative Steve Southerland, Republican from Florida. In the most essential respects, the food stamps increases, which means it also creates a huge number of poor. Moreover, it will encourage poor people to sit at home and do nothing; no doubt, poor people drink beer, watch too much television and have bad morals. Moral issues? There are two ways if the food stamps program stops; the first way is poor people have to find jobs and work to buy food and water and the second way is poor people do bad things as crime. Good or Bad? The answer is your
Now I am writing this paper as a final paper from TSOC 165. A big thanks to Prof. Velasquez and two authors James M. Henslin “Down To Earth Sociology”, Peter L. Callero “The Myth of Individualism” and all of the contributions which come from my classmates. I am going to pick “Poverty” for my topic by this time. From [1] “What Does Living In Poverty Really Mean?” I can see the article showed the main point is the gap between rich and poor in our society now. So what does poverty mean? "In the United States, the definition is an idea of absolute poverty. What that means is we 're looking at how much money you need to support a particular standard of living, to buy a certain amount of calories, a certain amount of vitamins, to buy a certain standard of housing.” Do you believe poverty happening in the U.S.? It’s so hard to believe. The reason I am saying this because when I was in Vietnam there was so many people told me about a definition of American (American = Heaven and Superpower). Superpower? Basically Superpower is a country ranked first in the international system and the ability to influence events and project power on a worldwide scope. Furthermore, someone also called the United States of America is “Promised Land.” It seems this is something paradoxical, but the truth is in "Heaven" or “Promised Land” also filled with poor people. According to the article [1] “What Does Living In Poverty Really Mean?” there’s one important thing when it mentioned Poverty as a social condition. “If you don 't have enough money to meet those social expectations, people will think of you as poor and you will think of yourself as poor.” This one makes me remember my response paper #2 when I discussed [2] “The Power of Social Class.” I also described that social class is the master of society and all individuals in the same social context. They are the same or equal to assets or income, education level or cultural, caste or social prestige, advancement possibilities in social order. What about Social Stratification? Clearly, Stratification is the social segmentation is the division of society into different social strata in economic status, occupation, education, life style, artistic tastes, etc. However, Social Stratification often associated with social inequality. Just a basic example about poverty as a social condition, Bill Gates – former CEO of Microsoft Company, so he can make $200 million a day, which means he can buy whatever he wants or making any investment he plans to invest. In contrast, a Walmart worker who earns $8.85 per hour, which means he is a working-class and he have had a lot of things to think and deal in his life to take himself or maybe his family. Oh man, this is really a huge number. This is just kind of a comparison between an upper class vs. working class as a social condition. Another thing that I’ve learned and really want to discuss is “Economy and Social Construction” that related to social condition. Why is Economy? Economy is a way to help people control and managing money and other resources. As we know there are three basic things in …show more content…
For example, the good thing is food stamps. Why good? Because food stamp means as a form of welfare of the American government to help the poor, give them a sum of 187 dollars/per month (one person/household) to buy food only (http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/how-much-could-i-receive). You can say that’s not a big number if you are rich; however, if you are poor that means a lot. “The explosion of food stamps in this country is not just a fiscal issue for me,” said Representative Steve Southerland, Republican from Florida. In the most essential respects, the food stamps increases, which means it also creates a huge number of poor. Moreover, it will encourage poor people to sit at home and do nothing; no doubt, poor people drink beer, watch too much television and have bad morals. Moral issues? There are two ways if the food stamps program stops; the first way is poor people have to find jobs and work to buy food and water and the second way is poor people do bad things as crime. Good or Bad? The answer is your