After reading Chapter Eight, the student should be able to:
- Define social class and its components and explain the three dimensions of social class.
- Discuss and illustrate the inequalities in the distribution of wealth and income in the United States.
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- Define status inconsistency and discuss the consequences for individual behavior.
- Explain Erik Wright's updated model of Marx's class theory.
- Discuss Gilbert and Kahl's updated model of Weber's perspective noting the characteristics of each class in this model.
- Examine the consequences of social class on physical and mental health, family life, education, religion, politics, the criminal justice system, and new technology.
- Distinguish between the different types of social mobility, including sudden mobility brought on by lottery winnings.
- Indicate how the poverty is defined in the United States and discuss the major characteristics of the poor.
- Discuss how poverty affects groups differently including women, children, and the elderly.
- Develop an understanding of why people are poor citing the individual versus structural explanations of poverty.
- Discuss welfare reform and how the statistics provided by the government may not tell the entire story of the effects of legislation to reduce welfare.
- Identify the social functions of the Horatio Alger myth.
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