Text D. About Poverty Level

Poverty is a family characteristic rather than an individual characteristic. That is, people are defined as poor or nonpoor depending on the economic status of the family with which they live. Two factors are particularly important in determining a family’s economic status: (1) the total income of the family and (2) the ratio of dependents to earners (dependency ratio) in the family.

We focus on six demographic characteristics that are related to a person’s family income and dependency obligations: age, education, employment status, marital status, parental status, and single parenthood (the interaction of marital status and parental status). The first three characteristics - age, education, and employment status - tell us something about a person’s earnings capacity (experience and skills) and employment effort. Higher earning capacity and active employment increase total family income, all else being equal. Marital status tells us something about a person’s family income as well as their dependency ratio. Marriage can increase income by increasing the number of potential earners in a family. Note that because poverty is a family characteristic rather than an individual characteristic, men and women who live in the same family have, by definition, identical poverty rates. Thus, if all men and women were married, there would be no gender difference in poverty. Parenthood and single parenthood, on the other hand, increase poverty by increasing the dependency ratio.

(From American Sociological Review, 1994, vol. 59, August)

I. Translate the text ‘About Poverty Level’ using a dictionary.

II. Answer the question:

How do demographic characteristics influence poverty level?

C O N V E R S A T I O N

About myself and my family

Vocabulary