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34 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Socioeconomic Class Based on These Things
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Income
Wealth Power Prestige Family ancestry Race and Ethnicity Gender |
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2 Categories of Income Maintenance Programs
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1. Social Insurance Programs (based on contributions) - entitlement
2. Public Assistance (paid for by taxes) - need |
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WC Purposes
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Designed to provide cash and medical benefits to people with job-related disabilities and survivors’ benefits to dependents of those whose death resulted from work-related accidents or illnesses.
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WC Eligibility
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- Victims of work-related injuries are entitled to receive prompt, reasonable compensation for injury.
- Most states do not cover injuries resulting from an employee’s gross negligence, willful misconduct, or intoxication. |
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WC Benefits
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- Cash payments (usually 2/3 of the wages previously received).
- Medical care and hospitalization. - Rehabilitation. - Payments (including burial expenses) to survivors in the case of death. - Training in new jobs for workers who cannot continue in their previous job because of injury. |
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WC Unique Features
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- Basically a no-fault system (not completely true).
- Financed by employers in most states. - Administered mostly by private insurance companies under state regulation. - Connection to OSHA (Occupation Safety and Health Act) – trying to prevent accidents. - Experience rating – how much the employer has to pay. |
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UI Purposes
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- Provides temporary and partial wage replacement to involuntarily unemployed workers who were recently employed.
- Each state administers a separate unemployment insurance program within guidelines established by Federal law. - Helps stabilize the economy during recessions. |
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UI Eligibility
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- Must meet state’s specifications regarding the amount of wages earned and/or length of time worked during a “base period.”
- Must be determined to be unemployed through no fault of your own. (because of a lay-off) - Must be able to work, available for work, and registered to work at the state employment office. |
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Person NOT Eligible for UI
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- Fired for misconduct
- Quits job without a legally acceptable reason - Fails to register with employment service - Refuses a job equal to or better than previous job - Goes on strike |
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UI Benefits
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- Cash Benefits
- UI benefits generally replace 35% of the previous wages. (Workers’ Comp. replaces about 66%!) - State-funded benefits are provided for up to 26 weeks. In times of economic difficulties when unemployment is high, benefits may be extended an additional 13 weeks. (about 9 months) |
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UI Unique Features
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- Federal and State Administered (Grant-in-Aid).
- Universal and institutional program to meet the reality that there will be temporary dislocations in a market economy. |
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Grant-in-Aid
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Money and guidelines come from a higher level and the administration, and some local initiatives, remain at the lower level.
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UI Analysis
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- Classic example of Keynesian Economics (Counter-Cyclical Program) – countering the economic cycles
- Historical Controversies: “Will a person become employed more quickly if benefits were lower?” “Should we require people to accept a job that is deemed “equal to or better than” the previous job?” - Experience rating is used in UI to discourage lay-offs. Employers with good records, those who do not discharge workers, are given the benefit of lower tax rates on their payrolls. |
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OASDI Purposes
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- Provides aid to the elderly, survivors of deceased, and those who are disabled.
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OASDI Eligibility
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- One must have worked in covered employment for the required number of quarters (the more you pay in, the more you receive and vice versa). 40 quarters – 10 years
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OASDI - Retirement
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- 65 years old or 62 with reduced benefits. (Gradual increase in the age of retirement with full benefits.)
- Must meet the required number of quarters of covered employment. (Generally – 40 quarters = 10 years) |
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OASDI - Survivors
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- Dependent of the deceased worker.
- Spouse at age 62. - Unmarried children up to age 18 or until graduating from high school. - Unmarried children over 18 if disabled. - Spouse at any age caring for a child under 18 or disabled. |
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OASDI - Disability
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- Permanently unable to work.
- Younger than 65. - Meets certain employment longevity requirements. |
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OASDI Benefits
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- Monthly check or funds transferred to a bank account.
- Benefits are tied to what the recipient paid in to the system during his/her work history. - Benefits are funded from a tax on employment. (1/2 is paid by the employer and ½ is paid by the employee.) |
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OASDI Unique Features
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- It is a national, universal, and institutional welfare program.
- Over 90% of the American work force is covered. - Increase in level of benefits with cost of living. - Low administration cost. - Lessens claims on the public assistance programs. |
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OASDI Analysis
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- Needs vs. Entitlement: Entitlement.
- Adequacy of benefits (especially for the very poor). - Workers counting too heavily on program rather than saving money. - Benefit structure overcompensates for inflation. – COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment). - Regressive tax – tax that becomes harder on the lower end of the range than on those on the higher end of the range. - Solvency of the funding – how much trust we have in the fund. |
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Crisis in the OASDI System
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- Demographic changes
- More liberal benefits paid to retiring workers - High inflation - High unemployment - Borrowing from the Social Security fund to finance non-Social Security programs - Increase in the number of beneficiaries that may be drawing benefits on one person’s claim |
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Important Facts about the OASDI
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- Largest govt. program in the world
- Single greatest expenditure of the fed. budget - When it began in 1935, the contributions of 17 workers paid for the benefits of 1 retiree (In 2035 – estimated ratio will be 2-1) - Over 40 million post-WWII baby boomers will reach retirement age between 2010 and 2040 - Minimum social security payment – $56.10 a month - Maximum - $2,346 a month - Average – $1,530 a month |
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Historical Approach to the OASDI Crisis
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1. To increase the age at which full benefits are paid.
2. Limit increase in benefits. 3. Tax benefits. |
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Absolute Poverty
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A deprivation of resources that is life-threatening. *A poverty line (poverty threshold) is officially determined as income that follows below a specified level. The poverty line in 2011 for a family of four is $22,350.
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Relative Poverty
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The deprivation of some people in relation to those who have more.
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Poverty Statistics
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- Govt. classifies 39.8 million people as poor (13.2% of the population)
- About 35% of the poor are children under 18 - The "Feminization of Poverty" means that more poor families are headed by women |
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Levels of Poverty
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- Transitional Poor - People whose experience of poverty is only temporary and is usually brief.
- Marginal Poor - The “working poor”; the jobs they have are low paying and insecure. - Residual Poor - People who remain in poverty over an extended period of time, in some cases over generations; sometimes referred to as the “underclass.” |
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Explanations/Causation of Poverty
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- Individual – The culture of poverty thesis states that poverty is caused by shortcomings in the poor themselves.
- Structural – Poverty is caused by society’s unequal distribution of wealth and lack of good jobs. - Cultural – Poverty is caused by a combination of individual characteristics of people and because for the nature of our society. |
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Individual Explanations of Poverty
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- Inferior Genetic Quality – “inferior IQ”
- Psychological Problems – not emotionally stable enough to keep a job - Low Human Capital – (Human capital refers to how much an individual’s labor is worth based on their productive skills, talents, knowledge, and personality characteristics. |
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Cultural Explanations of Poverty
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- Ineffective integration into major social institutions.
- Lack of organization in the community. - Traits of family life (Absence of childhood, early initiation into sex, free union, high rate of abandonment by males, female domination, sibling rivalry for material goods and maternal affection.) - Strong feelings of marginality. - Present-oriented. - Poor impulse control. - Feelings of powerlessness and lack of control. – “poverty of hope” |
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Structural Explanations of Poverty
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- Correlates of poverty create a vicious cycle (Crime, poor health, housing conditions, safety, lack of political power.)
- Class system reproduces over time. - Organization of the economy. - Continuation of institutionalized discrimination. - Isolation of the poor. |
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Social Classes in the US
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1. Upper class (5%)
2. Middle class (40-45%) 3. Working class (33%) 4. Lower class (20%) |
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Impacts of Socio-economic Status
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- People with higher social standing generally have better health, hold certain values and political attitudes, and pass on advantages in the form of “cultural capital” to their children.
- Social mobility is common in the US, as it is in other high-income countries, but typically only small changes occur from one generation to the next. - Due to the expansion of the global economy, the richest families now earn more than ever; families near the bottom have seen only small increases. |
