SYG2000: Introduction to Sociology

Social Class in the United States

The American Class Structure

• Social class: people who share similaro Opportunitieso Economic/vocational positionso Lifestyles, attitudes, behaviors

• Social mobility depends on society’s opportunities• Striving and achievement-based society

The Upper Class• Great wealth• Reputation, lifestyle precedes them• Exclude other classes, isolates itself• Influence the main sectors of society• Usually WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant)• 1% - 3% of the population• Entrepreneurs, successful businessmen

The

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• Successful business people/professionals• Careers greatly influence their lives• College educated, own property, have

savings reserve • Active in civic groups,

carefully plan future• 10% - 15% of population• Two-income couples:

corporate executives, governmental officials

• Gentrification

The Lower-Middle Class

• skilled and semi-skilled laborers• factory employees• other blue-collar workers.• people who keep the country’s machinery going• assembly- line workers• auto mechanics• repair personnel.• most likely to be affected by economic downturns• more than half belong to unions

The Lower-Middle Class

• live adequately but have little for luxuries• less likely to vote, and feel politically pointless• very much involved with their

extended families• stress obedience and respect for

elders• have not finished high school• represent 25-30% of the US

population.

• bottom of the economic ladder

• little education or occupational skills; are unemployed or underemployed.

• families often have many problems: broken homes, illegitimacy, criminal involvement, and alcoholism.

• little knowledge of world events

• are not involved with their communities

• usually do not identify with other people

The Lower Class

What is POVERTY?

The Feminization of Poverty

How Do We Count the Poor?

Myths about the Poor

2 Arguing Sides 1. More government aid and the creation of jobs is needed to

combat changes in the employment needs of the national economy.

2. Argues that government assistance programs launched with War on Poverty in the mid-1960s, have encouraged many of the poor to remain poor and should be

eliminate

PEOPLE ARE POOR BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO LAZY TO WORK.

•Half of them are not at working age.•40% younger than 18.•10% older than age 65.•The others are looking for a job/ working.

Myth #

Reasons for not Working:

•Ill or disabled •Going to school (teens with poor families)

1

Number of Working Poor Increasing • 40 hours/week with minimum wage.• Have a large family.• They settle for Low-paying service industries.• Good work places are no longer part of U.S.

economy. • Most are woman or young people with few

marketable skills.

Myth #

2MOST POOR PEOPLE ARE MINORITIES; MOST MINORITIES ARE POOR

MOST POOR PEOPLE ARE SINGLE MOTHERS WITH CHILDREN

•Poverty rate of female-headed families is extremely high.•60% of mothers receiving assistance have never been married. •1/3rd of the poor live in married-couple families.•1/4th live alone or with non-relatives.•The remainder live in a male-headed or other family setting.•(O’Hare, 1996; Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, March 2000)

Myth #

3

MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN POVERTY LIVE IN THE INNER CITIES

Poverty have been more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas.

Rural areas Urbane areas

Poverty rate 14.2% Poverty rate 11.6%

Higher employment rates and earn lower wages.

Earn higher wages than rural areas.

Residents tend to have below-average education levels and limited job skills.

Residents tend to have higher rates on education and better job skills than rural.

Poverty rates are exceptionally high

Myth #4

WELFARE PROGRAMS FOR THE POOR ARE STRAINING THE FEDERAL BUDGET

• Passage of Welfare Reform, 1996• 50% decrease of families receiving aid (Litchter & Crowley, 2002).

• Social assistance programs cost the federal government only 1/3rd as much as other types of social assistance, such as S.S & Medicare.

Myth #5

Government Assistance Programs

2 categories• (1) social insurance & cash

benefits going to people of all income levels. Ex. Social Security• (2) means-tested

programs and cash assistance going only to the poor.

• Economic rewards are unequally distributed in the United States.

• U.S. experiences more poverty than any other capitalist country.

• U.S. has been successful with holding down poverty among the elderly.

• U.S. Child Poverty rate is higher compared to other countries like, Britain or France.

The Changing Face of Poverty

Consequences of Social Stratification• Shown that social class affects

many aspects of people’s lives• Lower class get sick more often,

have higher infant mortality rates, shorter life expectancies, and larger families

• Poor are more likely to be arrested , charged with a crime, convicted, and sentenced to prison long term than middle and upper class

• Mental illness

The Functionalist Theory

• as presented by Davis and Moore holds stratification as socially necessary• argue that different positions in society make different levels of contributions to the well being and preservation of society• filling the more complex and important positions in society often requires talent that is scarce and has a long period of training• providing unequal rewards ensures that the most talented and best trained will fill the statuses of greatest importance, be motivated to carry out role expectations competently

• Critics of the functionalist view suggest that stratification is immoral because it creates extremes of wealth and poverty and denigrates the people at the bottom.

• In addition, it is dysfunctional in that it neglects the talents and merits of many people who are stuck in the lower classes.

Functionalist Theory

(Cont.)

• Also ignores the ability of the powerful to limit access to important positions.• Overlooks the fact that the level of rewards attached to jobs does not necessarily reflect their functional importance.

Conflict Theory

• stratification outcome of a struggle for dominance

• Karl Marx: stratification from power struggles for scarce resources– “The history of all hitherto existing society is the

history of class struggles. [There always has been conflict between] freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed” (Marx and Engels, 1961).

• those in control of means of production are determined to maintain their advantage– “The ruling ideas of each age have always been the ideas of its ruling class”

(1961).

• the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Conflict Theory• Exploitative nature of capitalism is evident• Class conflict would end once the proletariat moved

into power• Wealth can be distributed in for ways:– To each according to need– To each according to want– To each according to what is earned– To each according to what can be obtained—by whatever

means

Max Weber

• Agreed with Marx on dealing with stratification1. Group conflict is a basic ingredient of society2. People are motivated by self-interest.3. Those who do not have property can defend their interest less well

than those who have property.4. Economic institutions are of fundamental importance in shaping the

rest of society.5. Those in power promote ideas and values that help them maintain their

dominance.6. Only when exploitation becomes extremely obvious will powerless

object. (Vanfossen, 1979)• status and power: important aspects of stratification alongside class

Modern Conflict Theory• Social inequality emerges through the domination of one or more

groups by other groups.• The dominated have the potential to express resistance.• Those in power will resist any attempt to share their advantages.• What are thought to be the common values of society are really

the values of the dominant groups.• Those in power must find mechanisms of social control to keep

masses in line.• Ralf Dahrendorf (1959) suggested that both Functionalist Theory

and Conflict Theory are complementary rather than opposed.