ch4 pt2

Sernau

subjective social class thinker

subjective social class

social class determined by who we say we are and who others say we are

objective measures of social class

factors such as wealth, occupation, income, and education used to determine social class

karl marx, erik olin wright, ralph dahrendorf, and max weber

objective social class thinkers

-Karl Marx, Erik Olin Wright, Ralph Dahrendorf

nominal social class thinkers

Max weber

Who used the SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS to measure social class objectively

karl marx NOMINAL objective social class thinking

-Social class determined by WEALTH: owning the means of prod. i.e. land/factories TWO categories: Workers & owners

individuals accumulated private property, and his or her relationship to that property

key variables in determining social class

the new wealthy i.e. capitalists, who own factories and productive enterprises

Marx was more interested in…..

owners and workers

Marx categories of social class

dahrendorf

which nominal thinker believed that: AUTHORITY is as important as property

WRIGHT

which nominal thinker added the third category of managers/supervisors between owners and workers

professional-level employees/managers

professional-level employees who don’t own but still command

wealth education occupation income

WEBER idea that social class comprises those who share similar life chances in the marketplace and consists of factors such as…….

duncan socioeconomic index

-Used income and education data from the census and occupational prestige ratings to generate socioeconomic scores for the entire range of occupation categories

occupational income score

-Indicates median total income for persons in each occupation

poccupational education score

-Indicates percentage of persons in each occupation with one or more years of college education

siegel prestige score

based on subjective eval of occupations collected in a series of surveys. Used the rating of occupations by survey respondents and was the first to cover all occupations from nationally representative survey

penny capitalism

-average Americans are now more likely to hold shares in corporate assets, but they are less likely to have large bank accts, and the share of total assets they hold has not increased

bottom 50% of americans

have accumulated almost nothing, paying off cars and homes with loans, and are dependent on regular paychecks. They are less than three months worth of paychecks away from homelessness

next 40% of americans: the SAVERS

-more likely to own homes and accumulate some equity. May have some personal property of significant value such as debt-free cars/campers

upper 10% of americans the INVESTORS

planned portfolios, investments, stocks and bonds

top 1%

control corporate activities, hold large quantities of real estate and invest in major business ventures

wealth

accumulated property owned by a person or family

land, factories, productive enterprises, corporate stock, intellectual properties, houses, cars, other investments

factors/bses for wealth

negative wealth

having few fully owned assets while having large debt