The source I chose is a YouTube video by Crash Course. The video “Social Class & Poverty in the US: Crash Course Sociology #24” discusses how social class and poverty are connected with one another. The video discusses what a social class is – a group that is fairly similar in terms of income, education, power and prestige in society. Social class can be divided into five sub-classes: upper class, upper middle class, average middle class, working class and lower class. Those in the upper-class control much of nations wealth, have substantial political power and have a net worth of $250,000+. Within the upper class, there are those with ‘old’ money and those with ‘money.’ Those with ‘old’ money are those who inherited wealth while those with ‘new’ money are those who worked for it; examples include celebrities and founders in technology. To continue, the upper middle class refers to those with a net worth of $115,000+. Two thirds of adults in the upper middle class have college degrees, many with graduate degrees. Those in the average middle class have annual incomes between $50,000 and $115,000 annually. Those in the in the lower-middle class have incomes between $25,000 and $50,000 annually; these folks commonly work in manual labor jobs, thus coining the term ‘working class.’ Those with annual incomes of $25,000 and below fall under the lower class. Jobs under the lower class are commonly part-time, non-benefitted. Approximately 20% of Americans are in the lower class. This Crash Course video provides in-depth explanations, evidence-based claims, logical reasoning with the use of clear and concise language, overall making it an excellent source.
Poverty is a significant issue in our society today. A large majority of those living in poverty are employed, which the term ‘working poor’ was coined. Many of those are working for minimum wage or holding down multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Likewise, there are many families that fall in the range of what could be considered as in-between, although it is not quite low enough to be considered in poverty. In fact, in 2018, 10.6% of men, and 12.9% of women in the United States lived in poverty (povertyusa.org). Poverty would increase dramatically by approximately 25 million people without governmental assistance programs. These programs include social security, SNAP benefits, Medicaid, childcare subsidies and housing subsidies. Furthermore, race and poverty are correlated with one another. To be specific, African Americans, Latinos are almost three times as likely as non-Latino whites to be poor. One of the major problems in our society today is racism. Stereotypes and prejudice are also connected with racism. Racism refers to a set of beliefs about the claimed superiority of one racial group over others. Stereotypes are a widely held, oversimplified idea of a type of person or thing while prejudice is an idea about the characteristics of a group and subsequently, applied to all members of that group. Poverty and racial inequality connect to the source of the Crash Course YouTube video because the subjects of social class, poverty, racial inequality, prejudice are related with one another. In terms of puzzle pieces, many of these concepts fit together like a puzzle piece, filling in one aspect of the grand picture. Altogether, these connected topics make up at least a significant part of social problems and sociology.
Works Cited:
“The Population of Poverty USA.” Poverty USA, 2019, http://www.povertyusa.org/facts.
Unknown, Author. “Social Class & Poverty in the US: Crash Course Sociology #24.” YouTube, YouTube, 2017, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8PEv5SV4sU.
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