Chapter 10Social Class in the United States

What is Social Class?• Social Class – according to Weber, a large

group of people who rank close to on another in property, prestige, and power; according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalist who own the means of production or the workers who sell their labor.

• Property – material possessions • Wealth - the total value of everything

someone owns, minus the debts• Income – money received, usually from a job,

business, or assets

What is Social Class?

•Power – the ability to carry out your will, even over the resistance of others

•Power Elite – C. Wright Mills’ term for the top people in U.S. Corporations, Military, and Politics who make the nation’s major decisions

•Prestige – respect or regard

What is Social Class?

Status Inconsistency

•Status Consistency – ranking high are low on all three dimensions of social status

•Social Inconstancy – ranking high on some dimensions of social class and low on others, a.k.a. status discrepancy

•Status – the position that someone occupies in society or a social group

•Anomie – Durkheim’s term for a condition in which people become detached from the norms that usually guide their behavior

Sociological Models of Social Class

Updating Marx

•Capitalists

•Petty

Bourgeoisie

•Managers

•Workers

Sociological Models of Social Class

Updating Weber•Capitalist Class•The Upper Middle Class•The Lower Middle Class•The Working Class•The Working Poor•The Underclass

Social Class in the Auto Industry - Ford

•The Fords - Capitalist Class•Ford Executives - Lower Capitalist Class•Owner Ford Dealership - Upper Middle•Ford Salesperson - Lower Middle Class•Ford Mechanics - Working Class•Ford Detailer - Working Poor•Car Lot Cleaner - Underclass

Consequences of Social Class•Physical Health•Mental Health• Family Life

▫Choices of Husbands and Wives▫Divorce▫Child Rearing

•Education•Religion•Politics•Crime and the Judicial System•Social Class and the Changing Economy

Social Mobility – 3 types•Intergenerational Mobility – the change

that family members make in social class from one generation to the next▫Upward Social Mobility – movement up the

social class ladder▫Downward Social Mobility – movement

down the social class ladder•Structural Mobility – movement up or down

the social ladder because of changes in the structure of society, not to individual efforts

•Exchange Mobility – about the same numbers of people moving up and down the social class ladder, such that, on balance, the social class system shows little change

Interpreting Statistics on Social Mobility

•Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From Tree

•The Pain of Social Mobility

Poverty

•Poverty Line – the official measure of poverty; calculated to include incomes that are less than three times a low-cost food budget

•Feminization of Poverty – a trend in U.S. poverty whereby most poor families are headed by omen

Myths About the Poor

•Most are Lazy•Poor are Trapped and Few Escape

•Most are Latino and African-American

Dynamics of Poverty

•Culture of Poverty – the assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children

•Most Poverty is Short-lived

Who are the poor?

•Poverty is unequally distributed in the U.S.. Racial Ethnic minorities (except Asian Americans), children, women-headed households, and rural Americans are more likely than others to be poor. The poverty rate of the elderly is less that that of the general population.

Why are people poor?

•Some social analysts believe that characteristics of individuals cause poverty. Sociologists, in contrast, examine structural features of society, such as employment opportunities, to find the causes of poverty. Sociologists generally conclude that life orientations are a consequence, not the cause, of people’s position in the social class structure.

Deferred Gratification

•Deferred Gratification – forgoing something in the present in the hope of achieving greater gains in the future

•Good Book

Horatio Alger

•Horatio Alger Myth - the belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead if he or she tries hard enough

•Encourages people to strive to get ahead

•Also deflects blame for failure from society to the individual