7.11 Glossary
Absolute poverty: the minimum amount of money a family needs to meet its basic needs for food and shelter.
Alienation: the separation an individual feels from other people, the community, their human potential, and from the products they make under capitalism.
Assets: the cash and physical items a person or household could convert into money, such as a home and other real estate, a vehicle, jewelry, or art.
Bourgeoisie: capitalists who own the means of production and make money due to this ownership instead of working for a wage.
Class consciousness: a sense of shared identity within a social class, acknowledging that common problems exist due to a person’s class position.
Command economy: or planned economy, the ruling class or government decides what goods and services the group produces.
Communism: the means of production are owned collectively by the people in the community.
Credit reports: documents containing detailed information about individual financial matters.
Credit scores: statistical estimates based on financial factors, such as, payment history, debts, that are used by financial institutions to determine whether an individual is eligible for credit and under what terms.
False consciousness: how members of the proletariat identify with the bourgeoisie and support policies that benefit the bourgeoisie while harming the proletariat.
Gini coefficient: measures the degree of income inequality in a country.
Habitus: how physical appearance and ways of thinking and behaving reflect the social class status one had as a child.
Income: money earned through work, government benefits, like Social Security, and interest on a bank account.
Mixed economy: an economic systems that is not purely capitalist or command-based.
Official poverty threshold: calculated by the U.S. government using “the cost of a minimum food diet multiplied by three to account for other family expenses” (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022b).
Opportunity hoarding: how groups maintain wealth by controlling those resources needed to grow and preserve wealth.
Proletariat: the people who sell their labor in exchange for a wage under capitalism.
Relative poverty: having income higher than the poverty threshold, yet unable to maintain the standard of living in a community.
Social safety net: the programs provided by governments and private institutions, such as churches, to support individuals and families facing financial hardship or other difficulties.
Socialism: a command economy where individuals can still own property.
Supplemental poverty measure: a measure used by the U.S. government that takes into account the costs of food, clothing, shelter, utilities, and telecommunications, geographic differences in housing expenses, and considers non-cash benefits (like National School Lunch Program, tax credits) and other necessary expenses (like health care, child care) to provide a fuller picture of poverty in the United States.
Traditional economy: the economic system is organized according to a group’s customs, traditions, and norms.
Wealth: the value of all assets owned by an individual or household and subtracting any individual or household debts.