Social Class in the United States

1. SYG2000: Introduction to Sociology Social Class in the United States

2. The American Class Structure • Social class: people who share similar • Opportunities • Economic/vocational positions • Lifestyles, attitudes, behaviors • Social mobility depends on society’s opportunities • Striving and achievement-based society

3. The UpperClass • 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

4. 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 Upper-Middle Class

5. 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

6. 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. The Lower-Middle Class

7. The Lower Class • 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

8. What is POVERTY?

9. The Feminization of Poverty

10. How Do We Count the Poor?

11. 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

12. Myth # 1 People are poor because they are too lazy to work. Reasons for not Working: • Ill or disabled • Going to school (teens with poor families) 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.

13. 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.

17. Myth # 2 Most Poor People are Minorities; Most Minorities are Poor

18. Myth # 3 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)

19. Myth # 4 Most of the People in Poverty Live in the Inner Cities Poverty have been more prevalent in rural areas than in urban areas.

20. Myth # 5 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.

21. 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.

22. The Changing Face of Poverty • 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.

23. 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

24. 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 The Functionalist Theory

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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

28. Agreed with Marx on dealing with stratification • Group conflict is a basic ingredient of society • People are motivated by self-interest. • Those who do not have property can defend their interest less well than those who have property. • Economic institutions are of fundamental importance in shaping the rest of society. • Those in power promote ideas and values that help them maintain their dominance. • Only when exploitation becomes extremely obvious will powerless object. (Vanfossen, 1979) • status and power: important aspects of stratification alongside class Max Weber

29. 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. Modern Conflict Theory