Audio Resources

Audio 7.1: Get Rich Quick
Description: Stories of people trying to get rich quick or otherwise make something for nothing. As everyone knows, there’s no such thing as something for nothing. You always pay a price.
Learning Objective: 7.1: Describe what social stratification means for individuals and groups.

Audio 7.2: Money and Behavior
Description: This podcast examines what happens when you suddenly strike it rich and the power money has over our lives, for good and bad.
Learning Objective: 7.1: Describe what social stratification means for individuals and groups.

Audio 7.3: Wealth Gap
Description: This podcast examines the pay gap between minorities in Boston.
Learning Objective: 7.4: Explain what affects your chances for social mobility.

Video Resources

Video 7.1: The Most Expensive Homes in the World
Description: This video takes a look at the most expensive homes in the world.
Learning Objective: 7.1: Describe what social stratification means for individuals and groups.

Video 7.2: Social Class
Description: Filmed over three years (1999–2002), “Country Boys” tracks the dramatic stories of Chris and Cody from ages 15–18. David Sutherland's film bears witness to the two boys’ struggles to overcome the poverty and family dysfunction of their childhood in a quest for a brighter future.
Learning Objective: 7.3: Explain how achieved and ascribed characteristics impact individuals’ life chances.

Video 7.3: Rebuilding the Middle Class
Description: Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren, newly appointed by former President Obama to set up the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, outlines what is wrong with today's financial markets and how to help the middle class rebound from the recession in this 2010 address at UC Berkeley.
Learning Objective: 7.6: Discuss inequality and poverty from a sociological perspective.

Video 7.4: America in Recession
Description: Producer Ofra Bikel chronicles how the middle class is faring during the recession through the stories of the people who she’s come to know at the hair salon she’s frequented for the past twenty years. The film reveals the struggles of a small business owner to stay afloat, her sister’s risk of imminent foreclosure on her Florida home, and the various clients whose lives intersect at this New York City salon — from well-to-do bankers to struggling actors, each with a story to tell about how they’re getting by in turbulent times.
Learning Objective: 7.1: Describe what social stratification means for individuals and groups.

Web Resources

Video 7.1: Poverty
Description: Poverty USA seeks to educate and promote understanding about poverty and its root causes.
Learning Objective: 7.6: Discuss inequality and poverty from a sociological perspective.

Video 7.2: World Internet Usage
Description: This article examines the impact that the internet has on psychological health.
Learning Objective: 7.7: Illustrate how the digital divide helps stratify people.

Video 7.3: Lower-Income Families
Description: This article from Contexts Magazine focuses on assistance that is available from the Internal Revenue Service for lower-income families.
Learning Objective: 7.4: Explain what affects your chances for social mobility.

Video 7.4: Global Poverty Rates
Description: Global poverty rates have actually been on the decline since 1990 — the World Bank calculates that 1.1 billion people escaped extreme poverty between 1990 and 2013. This chart illustrates these trends.
Learning Objective: 7.6: Discuss inequality and poverty from a sociological perspective.