Before You Watch

How do we measure poverty? Is it a fair approach to help those who are in need?
What do you know about people who are experiencing poverty? What are come common myths that people hold in opinion of others who depend on welfare benefits to survive?
What would happen if we no longer had the security net created in the Social Security Act of 1935? Was that policy program a success?

Videos

Your readings start off discussion the frustration-aggression theory, when people can’t direct their rage at the real sources so they redirect it at a substitute target. It draws from the history of racial tension among those in poverty in southern states. This is all true, but only viewing issues of race, poverty and public policy a “southern state” issue is incorrect. The policies that are highlighted in the text and module are largely federal policies which are implemented by states. There are disproportionate affects of the policy across the US, not just in the southern region.
The 2003 US Commission on Civil Rights report classed a “quiet crisis” of discrimination policy, poverty and unmet promises for the American Indian. Why would/is the discrimination, genocide, and oppression of the American Indian so “quiet’?
Is Social Security failing? Why have the necessary policy reforms not occurred? Who gains from the status quo of policy on social security? Who loses?