Jack L. Roach

The relationship between socioeconomic status and infant mortality in a metropolitan aggregate, 1989–1991

This paper presents the results of an ecological analysis of the relationship between infant mortality and economic status in a metropolitan aggregate comprised of seven of the larger cities in Ohio during the three years centering on the 1990 census. Using a summary income score derived for the census tract of mothers usual residence, the census tracts in the seven metropolitan centers were divided into broad income groupings and three-year average infant mortality rates were computed for each area, by age, sex, race, and selected causes of death. The most important conclusion to be drawn from the data is that in spite of some remarkable declines in overall levels of infant mortality during the past few decades, there continues to be a very clear and pronounced inverse association between income status and infant mortality. The general inverse association is observed for both sexes, for whites and nonwhites, and for all major causes of infant death. At the same time, the data reveal notable differences in the magnitude of the relationship by sex, and especially by age at death, race, and cause of death. Explanations of these differences are suggested, and a conclusion notes some of the difficulties encountered in developing programs aimed at closing the infant mortality gap between the richest and poorest segments of the society.

Mobilizing the Poor: Road to a Dead End

This paper is addressed to the recommendation that the most effective strategy available to the poor for improving their condition is independent mobilization and the use of disruptive tactics. The most prominent exponents of this position are Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. We examine their analysis of “poor peoples movements” with particular emphasis on their account of the National Welfare Rights Organization and its failure. We conclude that (1) independent activities of poor people will fail to improve their status significantly and (2) for substantial improvement, it will be necessary to carry out activity within organized labor. We examine our rationale for this conclusion and the prospect for its success.

Income Maintenance Experiments, Politics, and the Perpetuation of Poverty

The background, general design and basic findings of a series of large-scale, government-sponsored, income maintenance experiments are described. Attention is given to the use of findings in connection with congressional debate over welfare reform. The findings have apparently fed political and ideological resistance to proposals for a national guaranteed income program for the poor. While we see the findings as bearing on the outcome of such a program, we suggest that much more important are largely unexamined systemic obstacles to a guaranteed income program.