Social Problems: Community, Policy, and Social Action
Video and Multimedia
Video
Learning Objective: Identify two consequences of poverty
Description: Home page to NOW (PBS) 2008 report on the ways the tax codes unfairly assess low income wage earners. Links to video and state by state infographics.
Learning Objective: Compare the four sociological perspectives on social class and poverty
Description: NOW (PBS) on the growing wage disparity. The economic benefits are now flowing to high wage earners, but the lower and middle class are getting less and less of the economic pie.
Learning Objective: Explain the different definitions of poverty; Identify two consequences of poverty .
Description: Guardian video animation with voice-over describing the income gap, the difference between Great Recession losses between the wealthiest and the poorest households. Summarizes food insecurity, health coverage disparities, wage changes over the last two decades.
Learning Objective: Identify two consequences of poverty; Assess whether life after welfare has improved after the passage of PRWORA
Description: Interview and discussion on ABC News presentation illustrating the Kentucky children whose poverty leads to poor nutrition, dental problems, and depression.
Learning Objective: Explain the evolution of U.S. welfare policy
Description: LBJohnson’s State of the Union introducing his War on Poverty
Learning Objective: Explain the evolution of U.S. welfare policy
Description: Video footage of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s introduction of Social Security.
Audio
Learning Objective: Compare the four sociological perspectives on social class and poverty
Description: NPR discussion on the difficulties people of color have in accumulating and transferring wealth. Current tax law interferes with wealth accumulation and business programs are not reaching enough people.
Learning Objective: Compare the four sociological perspectives on social class and poverty
Description: General drug tests to get welfare benefits or a state job remain unconstitutional after the Supreme Court decided not to hear the Florida case decided in a lower court. The Fourth Amendment prevents invasion of privacy, and only specific jobs can require testing.
Learning Objective: Identify two consequences of poverty; Assess whether life after welfare has improved after the passage of PRWORA
Description: Food insecurity is worse since the recession, especially for families headed by women and elderly.
Learning Objective: Explain the different definitions of poverty
Description: The federal government is going to add a new metric to measure poverty. The measurement will help the federal government see regional variation in poverty line, and the benefits government programs like the Affordable Care Act bring to people.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: Explain the different definitions of poverty
Description: Economic Policy Institute’s executive summary of 2015 report on increasing income inequality measured across states. Links to other reports and infographics.
Learning Objective: Explain the different definitions of poverty
Description: Summary of “A Hidden America” news report on the absolute poverty faced by children in some parts of rural Kentucky.
Learning Objective: Assess whether life after welfare has improved after the passage of PRWORA
Description: Ten states where the poverty rate is unexpectedly high using the supplementary poverty measure. Representative photos of each state.
Food Stamps Nutritionally Inadequate
Learning Objective: Assess whether life after welfare has improved after the passage of PRWORA
SNAP program recipient’s diet is not improved over the nutritional content of a non-recipient’s diet, according to a Harvard study.