Poverty, Wealth, and Inequality in the U.S.
Paul C. Gorski (pgorski1@gmu.edu)
Enterprise Hall, Rm. 428
703-993-9365 (o)
Office Hours: by appointment
Drawing on an interdisciplinary selection of theoretical frameworks and disciplines
ranging from critical studies to education, we will explore the social, cultural,
political, and spiritual implications of poverty, wealth, and inequality in the United
States. In a fully experiential manner we will examine, for example, the ways in
which class identity informs one's views of the world and its politics; how
socioeconomic status affects one's access to education and other social goods; and
how dominant discourses and stereotypes related to poverty influence mass
perception regarding a range of social issues, from educational policy to welfare.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will:
Develop deeper understandings of historical and contemporary class
conditions in the U.S. (NCC Competency: Global Understanding);
Strengthen abilities to identify various class-related ideologies as reflected in
social, cultural, and political organizations, policies, and discourses (NCC
Competency: Critical Thinking); and
Learn strategies for civic engagement and social change related to class
inequities and economic justice (NCC Competency: Civic Engagement).
Required Texts
Eitzen, D. S., and Smith, K. (2009). Experiencing poverty: Voices from the bottom. (2nd
ed). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Fireside, D., Gluckman, A., Rao, S., and Reuss, A. (Eds.) (2009). The wealth inequality
reader. Boston, MA: Dollars & Sense.
Kivel, P. (2006). You call this a democracy? Who benefits, who pays, and who really
decides. Lanham, MD: The Apex Press.
Poverty, Wealth, and Inequality in the U.S. 2
Learning Activities (Assignments)
Learning Activity 1: Class Participation (100 points)
Participation is not measured by the amount of air time one consumes. Rather, it is
measured by the extent to which one comes to class prepared and contributes
constructively to the discussion. The question is, within the context of your
participation style, were you prepared and engaged? I will use this rubric as a
general guideline:
(80-100) Excellent Participation. Community Member attends class each
week. Community Member consistently asks questions or makes
observations that demonstrate deep reflection and analysis. Community
Member engages actively and civilly in small group and other in-class
activities.
(60-79) Decent Participation. Community Member attends class each week.
Community Member sometimes asks questions or makes observations that
demonstrate deep reflection and analysis. Community Member generally
engages fairly actively and civilly in small group and other in-class activities.
(40-59) Lackluster Participation. Community Member misses two or more
classes. Community Member rarely asks questions or makes observations
that demonstrate deep reflection and analysis. Community Member fails to
engage actively and civilly in small group and other in-class activities.
(39 or below) Poor. Community Member misses three or more classes.
Community Member clearly arrives to class unprepared and remains
disengaged during discussions. Community Member does not engage civilly.
Learning Activity 2: Learning Journal (100 points)
Community Members will keep a weekly journal during throughout the semester. In
around 500 words, reflect on the topics and concepts discussed in class in deep and
thoughtful ways, attempting to connect them to some aspect of your current or
future life or work. These are not research papers and you are not expected to cite
sources. Instead, they are your opportunity to reflect thoughtfully on what we
discuss and experience in class. Note, this is not meant to be a review of what we did
in class or a discussion of what you liked or didn’t like from class. Instead, it’s about
finding yourself in the context of the class and its topics.
Journal entries should be emailed to me by midnight after each class meeting.
Journals will be assessed on the extent to which you:
Poverty, Wealth, and Inequality in the U.S. 3
1.
2.
draw on the concepts discussed in class that day and in previous class
sessions; and
demonstrate an attempt to connect those concepts and ideas to one’s
own life and social positionality.
Learning Activity 3: Discourse Ideology Analysis (300 points)
You may choose to work individually or in groups on this project. Community
members will perform a comparative discourse ideology analysis on two texts to be
provided to you the last day of class. Your primary questions are: How are issues
related to class and poverty being framed in differently in these texts? From whose
perspectives and to whose benefit? Remember to look carefully at the sources of
each text, her or his economic positionality, and her or his political orientation, and
how these inform or drive their ideologies (this means doing research on the
sources or authors of the texts). Look, as well, at where responsibility is being
assigned and what "sides" of the issue are being repressed. Be sure to use the
concepts discussed in class, such as "deficit ideology," "the culture of poverty," and
others where relevant. And be sure to dig beneath the surface of the texts. What
assertions and assumptions do you see "between the lines"? What common
mythologies are present, or in which ways do one or both of your texts challenge
these mythologies? Dig, dig, dig, and challenge yourself to take risks and make
interesting connections. You do not need to cite scholarly sources formally. But you
do need to make a clear argument based on evidence from the texts themselves and
from your experiences in the in-person portion of the class.
These essays should be no longer than six double-spaced pages.
They will be graded based upon the extent to which:
1. You engage ideas and experiences from the course in your analysis;
2. You dig beneath the obvious surface of the texts, mining them for implicit
and subtle reflections of varying class ideologies;
3. You produce a well-written, well-organized, argument which offers
unique insights into the texts and how they might shape class ideologies
differently.
Learning Activity 4: Why Are Poor People Poor Project (200 points)
Using media, materials, and forms of your choice (e.g., original poetry, visual art,
essay prose, digital narrative, creative nonfiction, a children’s book), you will
explore, in whatever way you deem to be most effective for making your argument,
why poor people in the U.S. are poor. Generally, as we will discuss in great detail in
Poverty, Wealth, and Inequality in the U.S. 4
class, perceptions of the reasons behind the persistence of poverty fit on a
continuum between deficiency (poor people are poor because of their own
deficiencies) and structural (poor people are poor because of structural conditions,
such as an inequitable distribution of opportunity) explanations. You will make an
argument for where on that continuum, or not on that continuum, you lie. Draw on
your experience with class texts, experiences, discussions, and activities, as well as
your own life experiences in order to support your analysis.
Your exploration of this question should incorporate a consideration of your own
lenses. How were you socialized to understand meritocracy? What messages did you
receive growing up about what poverty indicates about poor people? Where did
these messages come from? How might the ways in which you were socialized to
interpret markers of class inform the way in which you interpret poverty as a social
condition? In other words, be sure to name and own the lenses through which you
are making your arguments.
You will include, as well, a one-page summary of your project, describing why you
chose the medium or form you chose and the central message you were trying to
convey.
This assignment will be assessed on the extent to which you:
1. make and support a clear argument about why poor people are poor;
2. acknowledge the lenses you bring into your analysis and how they inform
that analysis (which, depending on your medium, could be included in your
one-page summary);
3. incorporate, even if visually or in verse, concepts and ideas from the class;
and
4. effectively use one or more media or forms to communicate your message.
Learning Activity 5: Acting for Economic Justice Poster Presentation (300 points)
Each community member will explore an economic justice or class inequity concern
of her or his choosing as it affects their home community (where she or he lives or
considers "home"). Options are broad: access to education, homelessness,
environmental degradation, lack of living wage work, or something else that you
identify. You will present an issue analysis on that concern in the form of a poster
presentation, in which you will describe, as deeply as possible:
(1) Who is most affected by the issue: In addition to socioeconomic status, are race,
gender, (dis)ability, or other identities noticeably related to the issue?
Poverty, Wealth, and Inequality in the U.S. 5
(2) How, exactly, the issue impacts those who are most affected by it: Think both
immediate-term and long-term. For instance, what are the long-term implications,
even across generations, for a community that is denied access to health care?
(3) Who is responding, and how: Who in your community is responding to the
issue? What strategies are they using to respond? Explore community organizations,
non-profit organizations, religious organizations, activist organizations, and others.
Look to see how national organizations (United Way, Catholic Charities, Urban
League, for instance) might be involved in your community at the local level. How
would you characterize the ways individuals and organizations in your community
are responding? Does it give you hope that change is on its way?
(4) How you would respond, given adequate resources: What do you think needs to
happen in order to redress the inequity or injustice you're exploring in your
community? Remember to consider the necessity for immediate, practical,
responses as well as long-term social change.
You will be expected to inform yourself about the issues you’re discussing by
consuming (and citing) at least five scholarly sources, not including our readings,
relevant to your topic.
You will create a poster presentation to share your research, findings, and
recommendations to your classmates. In a visually stimulating format, your poster
should include a synthesis of the elements described above. In addition, you will
turn in a brief synopsis of your presentation, not more than three double-spaced
pages long, which also should include references.
These essays will be graded based on the extent to which you:
1.
2.
3.
Incorporate major terms, ideas, and experiences from class into your
analysis;
Offer a deep, complex, analysis of others' responses to the problem;
Offer a thoughtful, informed, set of strategies for both immediate and
long-term change for economic justice and class equity as related to
the problem.
Grading
A = 940-1000
A- = 900-939
B+ = 870-899
B = 830-869
B- = 800-829
C+ = 770-799
C = 730-769
C- = 700-729
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D = 600-699
F = >599
Tentative Schedule
Week 1: Introductions
 Introduction to course and each other
 Review of syllabus
 Exploration of major course themes: poverty, wealth, inequality
Week 2: Wealth Distribution in the U.S.
 Relationship between wealth and income
 Wealth pyramid
 Ten Chairs activity: wealth distribution
Read: Fireside Section 1; Kivel p. xvii through Introduction
Week 3: Wealth and the U.S. Power Structure
 U.S. Economic Structure
 Corporate influence
Read Kivel pp. 1-80
Week 4: The U.S. Ruling Class and Power
 Passing on wealth
 Corporate welfare
 Redistribution of wealth
Read the rest of Kivel
Week 5: Popular Ideologies on Wealth and Poverty in the U.S.
 Deficit ideology (individual)
 Systems ideology (systemic/institutional)
 Resilience ideology (community)
 Analysis of texts related to each
Read Fireside Chs by Krugman & Parrish, Eitzen Chapter 1
Week 6: Images of Poverty and the Working Class
 Media depictions of poor and working class people
 View and analyze clips from All in the Family, Good Times, Cops, The Wire,
Justified, etc.
 Depictions of working class and poor people in school textbooks
View film clips (see course site)
Week 7: Voices of Poor and Working Poor People
 Visit to National Coalition for the Homeless
 Grassroots activism in poor communities
o Highlight education activism in Appalachia
Read Eitzen Ch 7-8
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Week 8: Considering the “Culture of Poverty” Hypothesis
 Introduction to Oscar Lewis
 Popular critiques of the “culture of poverty” hypothesis
 Analysis of texts using “culture of poverty” perspective (Ruby Payne)
Read “The Myth of the Culture of Poverty” (provided on class Web site); review
materials from aha Processes, Inc., Web site
Week 9: Images of Wealth
 Media depictions of wealthy people
 Analysis of rags-to-riches discourse
 Depictions of “old” versus “new” wealth
Read Fireside Ch by Phillips, PIzzigati
Week 10: Voices of Wealth
 View: Born Rich
Read Kivel pp. 107-127
Week 11: Images and Voices In-Between
 The “middle classes”
 “Main Street” vs. “Wall Street” discourses
 Kivel’s notion of “buffer classes”
Read “22 Statistics that Prove the Middle Class…” (linked from class Web site)
Week 12: Processes for the Proliferation of Class Inequality
 Education: Kozol’s “savage inequalities”
 Environmental injustice
 Living wages
 Underemployment
 Trickle-down or trickle-up economics
Read Fireside Ch by Collins (p. 30), MacEwan, Engel, Miller; Kivel
Week 13: Activism for Economic Justice: Labor Activism
 History of labor activism in the U.S.
 Shrinking of labor unions
 New labor movements
Read Fireside Chs by Lui (p. 211)
Week 14: Other Forms of Community Activism
 Fair taxes movement
 Living wage movement
 Fair housing movement
Read Fireside Chs by Greider & Barnes
Poverty, Wealth, and Inequality in the U.S. 8
Policies and Information
Please arrive at class on time. Two tardies will be considered an absence for the
purpose of participation grading.
Please attend class. Each member of the Community is allowed one absence, no
questions asked. Because the class is built around interaction and dialogue,
attendance by each member of the Community is critical. So when you miss more
than one class, your grade will be affected. An absence is excused when due to
serious illness, religious observance, participation in University activities at the
request of University authorities, or compelling circumstances beyond your control.
I reserve the right to request evidence when you will be absent for one of these
reasons.
When you miss class, it is your responsibility to arrange to make up the day’s work.
You must approach me about the absence and inquire about ways of making it up.
Engaged and respectful dialogue is encouraged. Demeaning, intolerant, and/or
disruptive behavior or responses at any time will affect your participation grade.
You are responsible for completing individual and group assignments on time
(defined as turning in all assignments in person at the beginning of class).
Assignments submitted late will lose one letter grade for each day they are past due,
including Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
In compliance with a University-wide initiative, I will correspond electronically with
students only through their GMU assigned email accounts. Please check your email
account regularly for updates and important announcements; checking your email
during University closings is especially important as I will alert you to schedule
changes via email.
George Mason University has an Honor Code with clear guidelines regarding
academic integrity. Three fundamental principles you must follow at all times are:
1) all work submitted must be your own; 2) when using the work or ideas of others,
including fellow students, give full credit through accurate citations; and 3) if you
are uncertain about citation rules or assignment guidelines, ask me for clarification.
No grade is important enough to justify academic misconduct. If you feel unusual
pressure or anxiety about your grade in this or any other course, please let me know
and also seek help from University resources. The University provides a range of
services to help with test anxiety, writing skills, study skills, personal issues, and
related concerns.
Poverty, Wealth, and Inequality in the U.S. 9
All papers must be typed, double spaced on 8.5” x 11” paper using 12 point Times
New Roman font with 1” margins. Multiple pages must be stapled before class.
Additionally, all papers and other assignments should be documented properly in
accordance with an accepted citation manual (e.g. The Chicago Manual of Style, The
APA Manual of Style, The MLA Style Manual).
GMU Student Resources
Center for Service and Leadership (Center for Leadership and Community
Engagement): The Center for Leadership and Community Engagement is a
central contact point at George Mason University for information on experiential
learning, service learning, and leadership development. The Center’s webpage
provides exciting and useful material including the Student Service Learning
Handbook, information on writing learning objectives, instructions on
completing a learning objectives contract, and lists of experiential learning
opportunities.
New Century College On-Line Writing Guide—
http://classweb.gmu.edu/nccwg/index.html This on-line guide is tailored
specifically to New Century College students.
GMU Writing Center: Robinson A116; 993-1200; writingcenter.gmu.edu
HYPERLINK "http://writingcenter.gmu.edu" http://writingcenter.gmu.edu
Office of Disability Services: Any student with documented learning disabilities
or other conditions that may affect academic performance, should: 1) make sure
this documentation is on file with the Office of Disability Services (SUB I, Rm.
222; 993-2474) to determine the accommodations you might need; and 2) talk
to me to discuss reasonable accommodations. HYPERLINK
"http://www.gmu.edu/student/drc" http://www.gmu.edu/student/drc
Student Technology Assistance and Resources (STAR) Center: Johnson
Center 229; 993-8990; http://www.media.gmu.edu