Urban social problems
Terms
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- The economic approach to human behavior
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Fundamental assumption: people are rational decision-makers
People try to maximize their satisfaction, given the canstraints that they face
Activities have both benefits and costs
The economic approach based on marginal reasoning - What causes crime?
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Sociologist: Bad families, bad peer influence
Psychologist: some people are born criminals
Ethical philipsopher: decrease in morality
Economist: crime is an incentive problem - Government expenditures
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Govt purchses of good and services
Govt transfer payments
Cash assistance (social sercity, unemployment)
In-kind Assistance (Public housing) - The Development of the American Welfare State
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1) The Income Tax-1913
2) Worker's Compensation Laws-1920's
3)New Deal Legisiation-1930s
Social Security (1935)
Unemployment Insurance (1935)
National Labor Relations Act
Fair Labor Standards Act- minimum wage law and over time pay
Increased Regulation of the economy by the federal govt
Welfare Programs
Public Housing-1937
4)Federal Disability Insurance-1954
5) Lyndon Johnson's Great Society Program
Medicare and Medicaid
Food stamp Program - Federal Government Taxes
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Federal Income tax-progressive
Payroll tax (FICA)- 7.65% - Capitalism
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Private ownership
Makets coordinate economic activity - Socialist Centrally Planned Economy
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Govt. ownership
Govt. planns the economy - Captalist Welfare
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Govt ownership of key industries
Expanded govt regulation of the economy
Exponded govt spending on programs to provide economic security and to lessen poverty - Urbanization During Industrial Revolution
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From about 3,000 b.c. to 1800 AD, urbanization limited by 3 factors:
1) Low productivity in agriculture
2) High Transport Costs
3) Small economics of centerlized production
Urbanization is the spatical manifestation of the industrial revolution - Demographic transition
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1) Before industrialization, high birth rates and high death rates, so stable population
2) As indsutrialization proceeds, birth rates remain high but death rates fall sharply. - Strong economic forces lead to the geographic concentration of the population
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Rule-to-urban migration is caused by two basic economic factors:
1) Push factor: falling farm prices and incomes, causes farm supply to out pace demand for farm products then prices fall
2) Pull factor: rising urban wages relative to farm wages - Why do cities Emerge?
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Cities emerge when centralized production becomes more efficient than production by self sufficient households spread out across the land.
Cost of good to a consumer =cost of production at some centeral location + transport costs
Because of steam boats and railroads prices of transport fell - U.S. Cities Population
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New York= 18 million
Chicago= 8 million
L.A.= 14 million - French Settlements
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-Founded trade centers along major waterways.
-Along Great Lakes-Detroit
-Down Mississippi- New Orlends, St. Louis - Dutch Settlements
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-Established a trading center in 1625 called new Amsterdam.
-New York City - British Settlements
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-Establised cities along the atlantic coast.
-Boston (1630)
-Newport, Rhode Island (1639)
-New York (1664)
- Best Natural harbor in N. America - Influence of transport costs on location
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-First major cities in N. America were seaports
-Steamboats-able to go back up a river and cities developed along rivers
-Erie Canal (1825)- opened up great lakes to transport goods
-Railroads- connected all parts of the country
-Chicago became the dominant city in the midwest - Transport costs depend upon
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-Availability of transport technology.
-Various Production technologies
e.g. steel requires coal
-Transport cost of coal equals transport cost of a ton of coal
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-Number of tons of coal needed to produce a ton of steel - U.S. city land growth around 1885
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-Until about 1860 radius of city was 3 miles or less
-Workers had to live close to work and had to walk
-Cities were very dense
1) After 1860, horse-drawn street car (trolley)
2) Electric street car
-1st electric street car in Cleveland (1884)
-By 1890, 20% of U.S.
-Trolley lines were electrified
-By 1900 30,000 miles
-Dramtic fall in the population density of a city
-4 cities with subways
-Boston
-NYC
-Philly
-Chicago - Until 1850s American Cities
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1) Very compact and Dense
2) Mixture of land uses
3) Two to 4 story structures
4) Buildings had shops and work places on first floor, people lived above
5)Streets were very congested - Decentralizing Forces
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-The Street Car
-Economic Growth and rise in household income
1) Single-family housing
2) Cars - Stages of U.S. Urban spatial expansion: the link to urban transportant modes
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-Walking city (1820-1850)
-The electric street car era (1885-1920)
-Era of the internal combustion engine (after 1920)
-Use of trucks within cities (1920-1945)
-Explosive Growth of autos within cities (1945 to present) - Communications Technologies
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-The telephone
-Fax, e-mail, the internet
-The building of urban freeways - Demographic forces behind metropolitan Growth
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-The baby boom
-Increasing immigration
-Increasing ruial-urban migration
1) Decline in farm employment
2) Black migration to northern cities
-Until the late 1940s central area of cities dominated their respective metropolitan region - The Suburbanization of Income
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1) Poor people attracted to central city locations
2) Middle and upper income households attracted to suburbs
-New suburban housing
-Fleeing central city problems
-Middle and upper income groups demand good public services
-Fleeing high central city taxes
-Suburban zoning - Race and Residence 1910-1970
- Since 1950, the older cities of Northeast and North Central Regions of the U.S. have come to have a large black population
- Regional Trends 1970-present
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-Population movement to the south and west-the "sunbelt"
Reasons for shift
-Lower wages
-Lower taxes and less regulation of business
-Lower housing costs due to climate, lower construction wages, and less land use regulations