Hi All:
After reading Chapter 10, I am astounded at these black and white statistics from chapter 10, from our Conflict and Order, EITZEN & ZINN text.
1. (pg. 259)
The average CEO in Business Week's annual survey made 326 times the pay of factory workers in 1997, compared to 1980, when CEOs made 42 times as much.(Collins,Leondar-Wright,and Skylar, 1999). This gap is increasing exponentially; for example, the average CEO compensation rose 54 percent from 1996 to 1997, while the average worker's pay increased only 3 percent.
2. (pg. 277)
Federal grant programs have failed to keep up with college costs. Pell grants were instituted by the government to help students from poor families attend college. In 1980, a Pell grant covered 82 percent of college costs at a public college or university; in 1995 it covered 34 percent.
3. (pg. 283)
In 1996, 32.6% of single-parent families headed by women were poor, compared to a poverty rate of only 5.6% for two-parent families.
4. (pg. 283-284)
Race and gender contribute independently to the poverty equation. "The black woman, with two strikes against her, is almost three times more likely to be poor as is a white woman. And a Hispanic woman is two and a half times more likely to be poor.(Shortridge, 1989:486).
5. (pg. 284)
Especially noteworthy is that "[t]he United States has the highest youth poverty rate of any Western nation"(Males, 1994:18)
6. (pg.284)
To put a finer note on the magnitude of children's poverty in the United States, consider this: In 1972, 3.4 million children were living below the poverty line; in 1997, with a poverty line that understates the real extent of poverty, there were 14.1 million children under age 18 living in poverty.
7. (pg. 284)
Actually, there are four times as many elderly people living in poverty in the United States.
8. (pg. 284)
Poverty is not randomly distributed geographically; it tends to cluster in certain places. Regionally, the area with the highest poverty, is the West, followed in order by the South, the Northeast, and the Midwest. The West surpassed the South in poverty in 1996, reflecting the large Latino population and the relatively large number of recent immigrants.
9. (pg. 284)
Using three year averages(1995-1997), state poverty rates ranged from 6.9% in New Hampshire to 24.0% in New Mexico.
10.(pg. 284-285)
Among the nation's counties,poverty is most widespread in rural areas. The county with the highest poverty rate in 1993 was East Carroll County, Louisiana, where 52% of the households were below the official poverty line(Edmonson, 1998). There are also 625 U.S. counties that have both extremes, ranking in the highest one fifth for both poverty and wealth.

These statistics above truly attest to the disparity between the rich and poor in this country. I read in this chapter that race, gender, and class all make a difference in person's lives.
If these statistics are accurate, and can be taken at face value, they are overwhelming. Especially, this country having such a high rate of children living in poverty! This is terrible.
Also, it is a reality that women still make less money than men for the same job. This really irks me.
I can see the differences between social classes in this chapter through the statistics in this chapter. I know that technically and in black and white, these statistics are staggering, and I also know that above and beyond these statistics are real people who have personalities, attitudes, and good consciences which avail person's the ability to have a happy life irregardless of these statistics. I think that everyone needs to develop a good personal and life consciousness to functionally handle their circumstances in good, responsible, respectful ways.
I do not think that the balance of resources ought to be so different among people's. I think that people have the right to achieve, to make good use of their resources, opportunities, and advantages in good ways and also have the personal responsibility to give to others of their wealth. I know that different people define material success and giving in different ways of course, but I think many people agree that persons ought to exercise their personal responsibility to give to self and others in all good ways that one is able. I think that people who are wealthy often are still living within their means; within their budgets, and may still not find they have much material wealth to share. In this case I think these wealthy people ought to try harder to spend less or more wisely and to give to others more, in good respectful, responsible, reasonable, efficient, truly effective ways.
In other cases where persons are excessively wealthy many times over, like Bill Gates, that he and others like him ought to launch so many programs to support schools etc. that nobody could count them all! It's completely unreal that one person has so much wealth when so many have so little and are truly in need of the basics. I realize that Bill Gates may have played his cards wisely, is smart, and may be lucky and has earned or deserves his excessive wealth. Or he may be a thief! No matter how he got his excessive wealth, and he has every right to have this wealth constitutionally, I think he ought to better claim his right to personal responsibility to help others, to help his country, to help our U.S. community. If all the excessively wealthy people in the world got together and decided to completely make the U.S. a functional, happy, all basic needs met well for everyone type of place, they could. If these people are so bright and so fortunate to have made so much money, how come they haven't shown their smarts better in ending poverty. No matter what anyone says, I think it is these excessively wealthy people's responsibility to end poverty. Our upper social classes defined predominantly by excessive money, material resources thus power and influence, have the responsibility to run the country well, diplomatically, equally, mutually, with all peoples. I do not think this is being done well today by any means.
Finally, the people I consider upper social class people are people with good values morals ethics and integrity. People who care, are loving, intelligent, make good choices and decisions, and do everything possible within means to give and help others achieve their dreams and live good lives. I think that social class descriptions are diverse and certainly subject to personal interpretation. Anyone who gets off on succeeding while others are suffering terribly or who wins while everyone else loses is really creepy to me. I just wonder whether people even have perspective on the condition of our society at all. I think many do not. Many more people do now today though because of the internet. People know more about the world now, more than ever before, and have less of an excuse or explanation than ever in history to go about blindly and ignorantly. People's blinders are definitely off in this day and age. People know now more than ever what to do and how to make this world better. I think talk is very important towards this goal and so is action as much or more than talk. I hope things improve for everyone in the U.S. and in the world, in my generation. I'd like to see this happen. Happy consciousness to everyone.
Till Later, Shaunasi