The United States of America is a classless and egalitarian society.

1. The United States of America is a classless and egalitarian society. Do you agree or disagree with that statement?

2. How Much Do You Know About Wealth, Poverty, and the American Dream? • True or False? • People no longer believe in the American Dream.

3. How Much Do You Know About Wealth, Poverty, and the American Dream? • False. • The American Dream appears to be alive and well. U.S. culture places a strong emphasis on the goal of monetary success, and many people use legal or illegal means to attempt to achieve that goal.

4. Dimension’s of Social Inequality in the United States

5. How Much Do You Know About Wealth, Poverty, and the American Dream? • True or False? • One in three U.S. children will be poor at some point of their childhood.

6. How Much Do You Know About Wealth, Poverty, and the American Dream? • True. • According to recent data from the Children’s Defense Fund, one in three U.S. children will live in a family that is below the official poverty line at some point in their childhood. • For some of these children, poverty will be a persistent problem throughout their childhood and youth.

7. What Is Social Stratification • The hierarchical arrangement of large social groups based on their control over basic resources. • Stratification involves patterns of structural inequality associated with membership in these groups. • Resources are anything valued in a society (money, property, medical care, education). • Life chances refers to the extent to which individuals have access to resources.

8. Social Mobility – (family tree handout) • The movement of individuals or groups from one level in a stratification system to another. • Intergenerational mobility is the social movement experienced by family members from one generation to the next. • Intragenerational mobility is the social movement of individuals within their own lifetime.

9. Class System • The class system is a type of stratification based on the ownership and control of resources and on the type of work people do. • What class of people are there in CB? • What are the characteristics that tell you someone’s social class?

10. People in the US are stratified based on the following: Income Prestige Wealth Education Power

11. Income • Wages or salaries from work and earnings from investments.

12. Income • Wages or salaries from work and earnings from investments. • Distribution of Income in the US • Top 5th 47% • Next 5th 24% • Third 5th 16% • Fourth 5th 10% • Bottom 5th 4%

13. Distribution of Pretax Income in the United States

14. Average After-Tax Family Income in the U.S.

15. Median Income by State

16. Wealth • Total value of money and other assets, minus outstanding debts. • Distribution of Wealth in the US • Top 5th • Next 5th • Third 5th • Fourth 5th • Bottom 5th

17. Wealth • Total value of money and other assets, minus outstanding debts. • Distribution of Wealth in the US • Top 5th 80% • Next 5th 15% • Third 5th 5% • Fourth 5th less than 1% • Bottom 5th less than 1%

18. Significance of Wealth ..\..\Chapter Eight- New\Wealthn statistics.docx..\..\Chapter Eight- New\wealth.pdf • Wealth is the starting line for the next generation- helping finance children's education, helping them through hard times, or helping with the down payment on their own home. • Economists estimate 50-80% of one's lifetime wealth accumulation can be traced to this head start. • As wealth gets passed down from generation to generation, the legacy of past discrimination accumulates, giving different classes vastly different life chances.

19. Race and Wealth • Today, the net worth of the average white family is Eight times as much as the average black family. • Probably no one statistic better captures the cumulative disadvantage of past discrimination than wealth. • Even at the same income levels, whites still have, on average, twice as much wealth as nonwhites. • Much of this difference is due to the different rates of home ownership and the different values of homes in white and Black neighborhoods.

20. Household Income by Race/Ethnicity in the U.S.

21. Power • The ability to get people to do what you want.

22. Schooling • Affects both occupation and income.

23. Prestige • Respect • Primarily based on Occupation • White Collar • Blue Collar • Pink Collar

24. Weber’s Multidimensional Approach to Social Stratification

25. Prestige Ratings for Selected Occupations: 1996 and 1963

26. Prestige Ratings for Selected Occupations: 1996 and 1963

27. Weber’s model of class • Upper Class - comprised of people who own substantial income-producing assets. • Upper-Middle Class - based on university degrees, authority on the job, and high income. • Middle Class - a minimum of a high school diploma or a community college degree.

28. Weber’s model of class • Working Class - semiskilled workers, in routine, mechanized jobs, and workers in pink collar occupations. • Working Poor - live just above to just below the poverty line. • Underclass - people who are poor, seldom employed, and caught in long-term deprivation.

29. Income and Wealth • Income - wages, salaries, government aid, and property • Wealth - value of economic assets, including income and property. • Socioeconomic status (SES) refers to a combined measure that attempts to classify individuals, families, or households in terms of factors such as income, occupation, and education to determine class location.

30. Stratification Based on Education, Occupation and Income

31. Defining Poverty • Sociologists distinguish between absolute and relative poverty. • Absolute poverty exists when people do not have the means to secure the most basic necessities of life. • Relative poverty exists when people may be able to afford basic necessities but are still unable to maintain an average standard of living.

32. Population without Health Insurance: U.S.

33. % Distribution of Poverty in the U.S.

34. % Distribution of Poverty in the U.S.

35. Feminization of Poverty • The trend in which women are disproportionately represented among individuals living in poverty. • Women single heads of households bear the major economic and emotional burdens of raising children but earn between 70 and 80 cents for every dollar a male worker earns.

36. Why do people tend to underestimate stratification in the United States? • In principle, the law gives equal standing to all. • Our culture celebrates individual autonomy and achievement. • We tend to interact with people like ourselves. • The United States is an affluent society with and overall high standard of living.

37. What does it mean to feel invisible in our society?

38. How do you explain this school’s fascination with the mullet? Is there a class issue?

39. Consider the following question: To what extent does the United States have a class system and to what extent does the United States have a caste system?

40. Classes is the United States • Upper-Class • Upper-Uppers • Lower-Uppers • Middle Class • Upper Middles • Average Middles • The Working Class • The Lower Class

41. How should someone’s salary be determined?

42. Compare the information you researched about CEO compensation. Compare the FIVE companies you each chose. What is your reaction to the information presented there? Do these CEOs deserve their pay?

43. Executive Pay around the World According to the Economist, • in Japan a typical executive makes 11 times what a typical worker brings home. • In Germany, 12 times. • In Britain, 22 times. • In Mexico, 47 Times.

44. Executive Pay around the World • In America a typical executive makes 475 times what a typical worker brings home. • Is this an issue for concern?

45. Executive Pay ..\..\Chapter Eight- New\Executive Compensation.docx • In 1968, the head of General Motors received about $4 million in today's dollars - and that was considered extravagant. • In 2004, Scott Lee Jr., Wal-Mart's chief executive, was paid $17.5 million. That is, every two weeks Mr. Lee was paid about as much as his average employee will earn in a lifetime.

46. “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” - Mahatma Gandhi

47. Poverty Thresholds in the US for 2001 by Size of Family • One person $ 9,214 • Two persons $11,859 • Three persons $13,853 • Four persons $18,267 • Five persons $22,029 • Six persons $25,337

48. Who are the poor? • Age • Race and Ethnicity • Gender and family patterns

49. Who are the poor? • Age- children are most likely to be poor • Race and Ethnicity- 2/3 of poor people are white but minorities are disproportionately more likely to be poor. • Gender and family patterns- women and female headed households. Effects of divorce.

50. Poverty in the United States • About 31.1 million people were poor in 2000. • Blacks (22.1 percent) and female-householder families (24.7 percent) had their lowest measured poverty rates in 2000. • In 1993, the Black poverty rate was 23.2 percentage points higher than that for White non-Hispanics; by 2000 this difference had fallen to 14.6 percentage points.