Sociology 1201: Week 5

Groups: Discuss questions from chapter 5,
6, and conclusion.
Conflict Theory
Competition between groups over material
goods, opportunities, values, and meaning
the normal condition of society
 Sociology includes the study of the ways
in which inequalities generate group
conflict and are resolved
 Inequalities of age, gender, and sexuality
particularly central to families
 Families are also the typical units of race
and class conflicts.

Low income budget: mother and
2 preschool children--expenses
Rent
650 (360—Section 8)(waiting list)
 Phone
40 Electric
40
 Garbage
25 Cable tv 30
 Food/etc
455 ( a couple of meals out)
 Bus/cab
58 Clothing 40
 Minn Care 60
Daycare 783
 Total Expenses: 2181/mo
 With section 8, Total expenses: 1890


Income
Monthly = 40 x7 x 4.35 x .938 = $1143
+$137 EITC = 1280
 What if she makes $8/hr? 1306 + 156 =
$1462
 What if she makes $9/hr? $1469 +178 =
 1647
 What if she borrows the other 2650 from
EITC in January or February?

Low Income Budget

Suggestions from groups last year
Night and weekend jobs
 More education… apply for TANF and go to
school?
 Childcare assistance… yes but what about
the deficit? (How about universal preschool?)
 Food stamps
 Find a husband (a better one this time)
 What else could she do?

Groups

Talk about your discussion questions for
chapters 5 & 6 and conclusion, Promises I
Can Keep
Who are these poor families
and what can be done?
They’re the families you’ve been reading
about in Promises I Can Keep , along with
a substantial group from rural areas and
inner ring suburbs… more likely minorities
and/or recent immigrants,
 What can we change as a society that
would make a difference, especially for the
children?

What can we do at the state level?:
the MFIP Demonstration Project
14,000 welfare recipients and applicants,
randomly assigned to either MFIP or
AFDC in 1994… followed closely for three
years.
 “Turning Welfare into a Work Support: Sixyear impacts on Parents and Children
from the Minnesota Family Investment
Program” July 2005

Would encouraging marriage help?

MPR Midmorning: 6/28/04

William Doherty, Department of Family Social
Sciences, University of Minnesota
 Minnesota
Healthy Marriage and Responsible
Fatherhood Initiative
 $5 surcharge on marriage licenses
 30% of children in Twin Cities born outside
marriage; more than half of parents express
interest in marriage (but only about 13% do marry)
 Mentoring program
 Screen for violence, severe substance abuse
What do we as a society see as
our obligation to children?
Where are we as a society on the path to
ensuring every child a “Healthy Start, a
Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a
Moral Start,” as the Children’s Defense
Fund motto puts it? Which of these would
you endorse?
 Or is it our priority to insure these things
primarily for our own kids and for “people
like us?”

What about our top policy
priorities at the national level?
The War on Crime?
 The War on Drugs?
 The War on Terror?
 No Child Left Behind?
 Health care reform?

How are we doing?
Friday’s Exam
Bring number two pencil
 Study Guide
