Social Class in the United States

Social Class in the United States

Introduction to Social Class

• Definition of Social Class: According to Max Weber, social class is a large group of people who rank close to one another in terms of property, power, and prestige.
  • Property: Material possessions, including buildings, bank accounts, bonds, businesses, cars, jewelry, land, etc.
  • Power: The ability to get one’s way even when others resist. C. Wright Mills referred to the concentration of power in a small group as the "power elite," encompassing business, government, and the military.
  • Prestige: Often linked to occupational status, reflecting societal respect and admiration.

Occupational Prestige

• Global Consistency: Rankings of occupational prestige are relatively consistent across different countries and have remained stable over time.
• Factors Influencing Prestige: Higher prestige occupations typically involve higher pay, require more education and abstract thought, and offer greater autonomy.

Occupational Prestige Examples

• High Prestige Occupations (United States):
  • Physician: 86
  • Supreme Court Judge: 85
  • College President: 81
  • Astronaut: 80
  • Lawyer: 75
  • College Professor: 74
  • Airline Pilot: 73
  • Architect/Biologist: 73
• Low Prestige Occupations (United States):
  • Lives on Public Aid: 25
  • Bill Collector: 24
  • Factory Worker: 24
  • Janitor: 22
  • Shoe Shiner: 17
  • Street Sweeper: 11

Status Inconsistency

• Status Consistency: Most people rank similarly across the dimensions of social class (wealth, power, prestige).
• Status Inconsistency: Occurs when individuals rank higher on some dimensions than others, which can lead to frustration and political radicalism.

Income vs. Wealth

• Income: Money received as earnings from a job, business, or assets (salary/wages).
• Wealth: The total value of everything someone owns, minus outstanding debts.
  • Wealth is distributed more unequally than income.
  • Data from 2014 indicates the median wealth for U.S. families was approximately 90,000. The lowest-ranking 40% of U.S. families have little to no wealth.

Distribution of Income and Wealth in the United States

• Income Distribution: The highest-earning one-fifth of U.S. families receive 49.2% of all income, while the bottom one-fifth receive only 3.7%.
• Wealth Distribution: The richest one-fifth of U.S. families control 88.9% of all privately owned wealth, while the poorest one-fifth are often in debt.

Views of Social Class

Marx's View of Social Class

• Capitalists (Bourgeoisie): Those who own the means of production.
• Workers (Proletariat): Those who work for the capitalists.
• Inconsequential Others: Beggars, etc.

Weber's View of Social Class (The U.S. Social Class Ladder)

• Capitalist: Prestigious university; Investors and heirs, a few top executives; 1,000,000+; 1%
• Upper Middle: College or university, often with postgraduate study; Professionals and upper managers; 125,000+; 15%
• Lower Middle: High school or college; often apprenticeship; Semiprofessionals and lower managers, craftspeople, foremen; About 60,000; 34%
• Working: High school; Factory workers, clerical workers, low-paid retail sales, and craftspeople; About 35,000; 30%
• Working Poor: Some high school; Laborers, service workers, low-paid salespeople; About 17,000; 16%
• Underclass: Some high school; Unemployed and part-time, on welfare; Under 10,000; 4%

Social Mobility

• Intergenerational Mobility: Changes in social class from one generation to the next.
  • Upward Social Mobility: Movement up the social ladder.
  • Downward Social Mobility: Movement down the social ladder.
• Structural Mobility: Changes in society that lead large numbers of people to change their social class.
• Exchange Mobility: The movement of large numbers of people from one class to another, with the net result that the relative proportions of the population in the classes remain about the same.

Consequences of Social Class

• Social class affects nearly every aspect of life, including access to technology, health, healthcare, child rearing, education, religious affiliation, political participation, and interaction with the criminal justice system.

Problems Linked to Poverty

• Poor Health:
  • Strong link between income and health.
  • "Food insecurity" or lack of access to nutritious foods.
  • Stress leading to substance abuse.
  • Lack of health insurance.
  • Higher infant mortality rates and lower life expectancy.
• Substandard Housing:
  • Decline in availability of low-rent apartments.
  • High housing costs.
  • Homelessness affecting about 554,000 people on a given night and 1.6 million at some point during the year.
• Limited Schooling:
  • 30% of economically disadvantaged children do not graduate from high school.
  • Fewer poor children enter and complete college.
  • Tracking often defines poor children as less able.
• Crime and Punishment:
  • Focus on "street crime" disproportionately affects the poor.
  • Dependence on public defenders.
  • Increased difficulty finding employment after conviction.
• Political Alienation:
  • Lower voting rates among those earning less than 40,000 per year compared to those earning at least 100,000 per year.

The Poverty Line

• Definition: Income level set by the government to count the poor.
• Calculation: Roughly three times what a family needs to eat a basic, nutritious diet.
• 2016 Statistics: 12.7% of the U.S. population fell below the poverty line.

U.S. Government Poverty Threshold (2016)

• One person: 12,228
• Two persons: 15,569
• Three persons: 19,105
• Four persons: 24,563
• Five persons: 29,111
• Six persons: 32,928
• Seven persons: 37,458
• Eight persons: 41,781
• Nine or more persons: 49,721

Myths About Poverty

1. Poor people are lazy and don’t want to work.
2. Poor people are trapped in a cycle of poverty that few escape.
3. Most of the poor are African American or Latino.
4. Most of the poor live in the inner city.
5. The poor live on welfare.

Theories of Poverty

Structural-Functional Analysis

• Some poverty is inevitable.
  • Social Pathology Theories: Poverty results from personal flaws and a culture of poverty.
  • Meritocracy: Social standing corresponds to personal ability and effort.

Symbolic-Interaction Analysis

• Highlights the social construction of problems and solutions.
• Blaming the Victim: Finding the cause of a social problem in the behavior of those who suffer from it.
• Poverty's cause is in society, not individual failings.

Social-Conflict Analysis

• Poverty can be eliminated.
  • Marxist Theory: Industrial-capitalist economy places wealth in the hands of a few.
  • Cultural Capital: Skills, values, attitudes, and schooling that increase a person’s chances of success.

The Horatio Alger Myth

• The belief that anyone can get ahead through hard work encourages people to strive for success and deflects blame for failure from society to the individual. It is functional for society. Making people believe they can overcome.