Basics
Some key concepts
Welfare basics

Week 1
Some statistics, concepts dealing with poverty
More on inequality
Structural and individual explanations
Discussion outline
Discussion outline 2
Lareau's book, comparing the two schools, child-rearing
More recent stats

Week 2
Social welfare: Historical highlights
Capitalism primer
Welfare as regulator of the poor?
Welfare in the 1960s
The Business backlash
Outline

Week 3
Is there a culture of poverty?
Rural poverty
Who benefits from poverty?
Systems of privilege
Living wage
Outline

Week 4
Some basic questions to ask about welfare programs
Welfare programs
'Work ethic' and welfare reform
Federal programs
Bureaucracy
Outline

Week 5
Family values
Looking back
Outline

Week 6
The working poor
Milwaukee as a case study

Week 7
Caricatures of the poor
Living wages
'McDonaldization' of work
Outline
Outline II

Week 8
Low wage work and poverty--comparing perspectives
Mead and Ehrenreich compared
Trends in the labor force
Money problems
Social Security