Work with a group of classmates to construct a basic, needs-oriented budget for a family of a specified size (e.g., two adults and two children or one adult and three children) for a month. Consider the estimated cost of rent or a mortgage, transportation, communication, food, clothing, school supplies, electricity, and so forth. When you have created an estimated budget, multiply it by 12 to determine how much your hypothetical family would need to meet its basic needs for a year. Compare your calculation with the government’s poverty threshold. Do your calculations suggest that the government’s estimate of what a family needs to cover basic needs is too low, too high, or about right?
Using the online version of a national newspaper such as TheNew York Times or TheWashington Post, do a keyword search for “income inequality” (both sites provide a search engine). Choose an article or two and read it carefully. Does the article highlight any of the trends discussed in the chapter? Does it offer something new on the topic that was not covered? Share your findings with a classmate or the group or write a paragraph to situate your findings in the context of the chapter material on income inequality.
Make a map of the town and city surrounding your college or university. Mark on the map all the places where you can get food of any kind. For each of these food locations, add a symbol if that location provides “competitively priced, healthy, and fresh food.” Are there any food deserts in your community? Are these two types of food places equally distributed? How well does public transportation in your community provide people the opportunity to shop at the locations providing “competitively priced, healthy, and fresh food?” Why do you think there are or are not food deserts in your community versus other communities?
With a group of your peers, each make a list of your personal statuses, both ascribed and achieved. Compare your lists. Which of your statuses carry the most influence? In what type of situations do your statuses matter more or less? Do you get advantages or disadvantages versus your peers based on your statuses?
With a group of peers, have each of you write down from memory all the countries you believe are in Europe, Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America. Compare your lists to each other and to an actual map of these places. Discuss which regions’ countries you know better. Why are you more familiar with these regions geographically? Discuss what you know about the culture, history, and social institutions of these regions? Do you know more about the places you are more geographically familiar with? Why? What are the personal consequences for you of being more aware of some countries and regions than others? What are the global consequences of people in some societies having higher awareness levels of some countries and regions than others?
