This site is 100% ad supported. Please add an exception to adblock for this site.

Urban social problems

Terms

undefined, object
copy deck
The economic approach to human behavior
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?
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
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
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
Federal Income tax-progressive
Payroll tax (FICA)- 7.65%
Capitalism
Private ownership
Makets coordinate economic activity
Socialist Centrally Planned Economy
Govt. ownership
Govt. planns the economy
Captalist Welfare
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
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
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
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?
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
New York= 18 million
Chicago= 8 million
L.A.= 14 million
French Settlements
-Founded trade centers along major waterways.
-Along Great Lakes-Detroit
-Down Mississippi- New Orlends, St. Louis
Dutch Settlements
-Established a trading center in 1625 called new Amsterdam.
-New York City
British Settlements
-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
-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
-Availability of transport technology.
-Various Production technologies
e.g. steel requires coal
-Transport cost of coal equals transport cost of a ton of coal
X
-Number of tons of coal needed to produce a ton of steel
U.S. city land growth around 1885
-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
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
-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
-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
-The telephone
-Fax, e-mail, the internet
-The building of urban freeways
Demographic forces behind metropolitan Growth
-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
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
-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

Deck Info

27

permalink