Morabito 1
Salvatore Morabito
Stratification Project Reflection Paper
Bridgewater College
May 5, 2013
1568 words
Morabito 2
Abstract
Social stratification is the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society,
in terms of their access to material or symbolic reward (GDAC 200). Most of the people in
today’s world tend to consider themselves as middle classed regular workers, who live a normal
life compared to the standards; however, stratification shows the clear cut picture and
inequalities between these classes and peers. I was class number 4, which it is the middle one
most people refer to. My life as a middle class man was not the most extravagant, but it was
also a pretty comfortable one, which would put me in good shape for my monthly expenses;
this was my final thought after comparing my result with the one from people of lower and
higher classes. The overall question was understanding whether stratification is fair or not, but
coming to an answer really depends upon personal opinions.
Morabito 3
The Morabito family is a family of 4 people, my wife Deidra and I, and my two kids
Johnny and Mary. In this project, the Morabito family was in social class 4, with a gross income
of about $71,000 per year. This income is earned by one worker, the dad, which would be me,
working as first line manager at the superstore Costco in Harrisonburg VA. Both my wife and I
live together, we met each at Bridgewater College, from which we both graduated with a
degree in Business Management. I am the only worker, as we didn’t feel the need for her to be
working, this leaving my wife with plenty of time to take care of the kids and inside the house
work; however, the fact that she could get a well-paying job anytime, keeps us in kind of a
financial security. We might need her to start working later on when we decide to buy a house,
because the high rent to live in a secure neighbor, is leaving us with no property in our hands,
after spending plenty of money. This income gives us plenty of money to save, invest, and
spend in vacations, if well used. The family owns two cars, one for the family, on which I’m
paying a loan, and a little beater paid in cash, that is mine, for my daily commute of 4 miles to
work and back.
This project challenged me to think critically about what real life is, and what my
parents did to get through life when I was growing up. I happened to be in the same class that I
grew up into, so there was not any intergenerational mobility. Intergenerational mobility is
when one person shift social classes from generation to generation (GDAC 219). On this case
Pierre Bordieu would explain that this is my family situation because of the cultural capital that
my parents have transmitted me, as we would refer coming from a ‘good home’ (GDAC 220). I
can refer to this as an parental example, as in my parents always raised me installing in me that
fact that studying was important, and that one day it will all pay off, when I would get a well-
Morabito 4
paying job, as if that was the expected thing to do, that goes accordingly with the society norms
and values, which are the foundation to our culture (GDAC 43). As kids we were expected to
always be doing good at school, and when an older person asks us “who do you want to be
when you grow up?”, we are expected to give answers like ‘an astronaut, or a lawyer’, because
it is our society that teaches us to be this money based society, since kids are little. If one kid
was to say ‘a Wal-Mart door greeter, cause they are cool’ the older people might either freak
out or start laughing in front of the kid, explain to the kid what that really means, and try to
socialize them into what the older ones want, and especially what society wants (GDAC 76).
Compared to all the other classes, I was right in the middle, class 4, which during a class
discussion, it was said that this is the class most people in America would classify themselves as
belonging to. According to one of New York Time Economix’s article ‘Everyone is middle class,
Right?’, Catherine Rampell talks about how people in the USA tend to consider themselves to
all be in the middle class, and this made her think about the issue of who the middle class really
is, and why do most people accord to belong to it. According to the article the author says that
this misconception might be a misleader from people’s continued interaction with people
belonging to that class, and therefore use their income or lifestyle as a reference point
(Rampell). This goes along with Robert Merton’s concept of reference groups, where he says
that these reference groups act as a standard by which people evaluate themselves (GDAC
136).
The fact that people classify themselves as middle class is also a factor related to people
wanting to be or look normal, and sometime this is seen within a person’s social role where he
or she acts like expected (GDAC 112). Also I believe that people do not want to admit they are
Morabito 5
poor because most of the people aren’t, so the people who aren’t are going to look to them
and think they are snobby rich people, while the poor would be looked down upon and lazy
people who didn’t try hard enough in their lives.
The fact that people try to compare themselves as being in the middle class was more
obvious to me when I compared the results with two peers in my class, Kyle from social class 2
and Sidney from class 7. The lifestyle changed in many ways looking up and down. I first looked
at Sidney who, different from me, was the top 1% of the population. After asking what her
lifestyle was, I could not afford to say anything else but ‘I wish’, even though I have a pretty
comfortable income, I am not able to afford trips, cars, houses, and social mobility as her and
her family would. This is connected to the fact that richer family tend to have more social
mobility than poorer families, also the fact that more money allow you to go father in today’s
world (GDAC 220). Our lifestyle were completely different, as I came out even after all my
expenses monthly, Sidney said that she had more than enough left to where she didn’t know
how to spend them, while I could use them to pay for my car, maybe buy an house instead of
renting, or maybe be able to pay for my children’s full education, instead of making monthly
payments and give them a little budget.
On the other hand talking to Kyle was way different, because in this case he was the one
who said ‘I wish’ rather than me, when we talked about each other’s income. Kyle’s income of
about $22,000, led him to a lifestyle that was not the most comfortable, and did not give him a
lot or rather any social mobility, and forced him to have a working life that was way more
stressful than both Sidney and I. Kyle’s work situation could be compared to the one of Mac
McClelland in his story ‘Shelf Lives’. McClelland talks about his experience working for this
Morabito 6
company who shipped dildos after receiving online orders. McClelland’s story is unique; this job
is not only an embarrassing one, try telling your son or dad what you do for a living, but it also
lets people understand what is behind the action of pushing ‘Buy Now’ when online shopping.
McClelland’s describe his job as one that reminds him how badly he is performing, when he
gets written up, and when the scanner is telling him he’s only performing about 52% of his
expected goal, but also as a prison, where at time voting, the main human right gets pulled
away from you, not literally, but it is made hard to do (McClelland). This is something that is
happening in many of companies, not just the company he was working in, but also the main
and bigger ones as Amazon, Staples and Dell (McClelland).
The factor that leads him with no social mobility, is the fact that he doesn’t have any
money to invest in anything, and the father looking of intergenerational mobility is not looking
to well, as he is not going to put any money down to save for his kids college funds. The only
hope for his kids to go to college is either a scholarship for academics, or Financial Aid covering
all of the expenses, because even as cheap $3,000 dollars a year for each kid would be a big
expense for him. According to Bourdieu his kids will less likely be able to move because of the
family they came from, and the growing situation in which they find themselves (GDAC 320).
The kids and the family overall is probably also going to experience social exclusion, that is the
deprivation that prevents the family in this case to fully participate in the society they live
(GDAC 328). The kids might experience this when it comes to maybe joining sport teams
outside school; for example, if all of Sidney’s, Kyle and my kids were to join travel soccer teams
in the Valley during their teens year, one would be able to notice the difference of social
classes, just by looking at the clubs. Sidney’s kids might play for SOCA, the highest and most
Morabito 7
expensive soccer club around, my kids might play for something a little lower, like Augusta FC
or SVTS, while Kyle’s kids will most likely be in Augusta Co-Rec-Team where volunteers bring
balls to the field and let the kids kick around for a little.
The overall goal of this project was understanding how life or rather stratification works,
and the difference between many of lifestyles. Also this shows what life is like once people
make career choices, and this probably pushed some people to work harder at school, as they
do not want to be in the lower class when they graduate. However as mentioned earlier, most
of the people in my class will not be the top 1% because they don’t have the cultural capital of
rich families. Telling whether stratification is fair or not, by my point of view is really hard,
because one can say that it is fair because it is all based by people’s hard work, and choices, in
this country at least; but one could also say that stratification is not fair, because some people
are just born with better arrangements than others; however, like we have been taught when
we were little, life is not fair.
Morabito 8
Reference Page
Giddens, A., Duneier, M., Appelbaum, R., & Carr, D. (2012). Essentials of Sociology, 4th
Edition . New York: Norton
Mac, McClelland. “The Secret Hell of Online Shopping” Mother Jones Smart, Fearless
Journalism. March and April 2012: n.p. Web. 1 May. 2013.
Rampell, Catherine. "Everyone is 'Middle Class', Right?." New York Times Economix. April 20,
2012: n.p.. Web. 1 May. 2013.
Morabito 9
Appendices
HOUSE: Located on 120 Chelsea Cir, Harrisonburg, VA 22801
CARS:
2008 Nissan Rogue S (family)
1999 Honda Civic EX (commuter)