Question

3. How do the structural-functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives view the nature, causes, and consequences of economic inequality, wealth, and/or poverty?

4. What are some of the patterns that characterize the wealthy “1 percent” as well as patterns of poverty?

5. What are some of the international and U.S. strategies aimed at reducing poverty and economic inequality?

6. What are some of the U.S. public assistance and welfare programs, and what are some of the myths about welfare in the United States?

Answer 1

Answering the 3rd Question - Structural-functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives view the nature, causes, and consequences of economic inequality, wealth, and/or poverty -

Perspective	Nature, Causes & Consequences
Structural-functionalist	All aspects of society, even poverty, contribute in some way to society’s overall stability. Society is unequally structured because of people’s inherent inequality in functional importance. Stratification and inequality are inevitable and beneficial to society. The layers of society, conceptualized as a pyramid, are the inevitable sorting of unequal people. It ensures that the best people are at the top and those who are less worthy are further down the pyramid, and therefore have less power and are given fewer rewards than the high quality people at the top. Differences in power and wealth are justified, because they motivate the most qualified people to exercise their talents in the most important jobs.
Conflict	Capitalist economic competition unfairly privileges the rich, who have the power to perpetrate an unfair system that works to their advantage. “Losers” who are at the bottom of the social stratification have little opportunity to improve their situation, since those at the top tend to have far more political and economic power. Stratification is dysfunctional and harmful in society. It benefits the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor. The competitive system, together with the way the game is “fixed”, ends up creating and perpetuating stratification systems.
Symbolic Interactionist	Interactionists often consider the question of how power is exchanged in a situation. The interactionist perspective on inequality looks at how certain social roles have more power or authority than others. Social roles refer to one’s position and responsibilities in society, which are largely determined in modern developed nations by occupation. Micro-interactions all have the ability to reinforce or undermine power and status differentials. Thus, social stratification is a result of these individual interactions.