Social Stratification: United States and Global
Perspectives
Chapter Outline
 Social Stratification: Shipwrecks and Inequality
 Global Inequality
 Is Stratification Inevitable? Three Theories
 Social Mobility
 Noneconomic Dimensions of Class
Social Stratification: Shipwrecks
and Inequality
 Writers and filmmakers use the shipwreck as a literary
device.
 It allows them to sweep away all traces of privilege and
social convention and reveal human beings stripped to
their essentials.
Robinson Crusoe (1719)
 Defoe was one of the first writers to portray capitalism
favorably.
 He believed that people get rich if they possess the
virtues of good businessmen.
 Defoe tells the story of an Englishman marooned on a
desert island.
 His strong will, hard work, and inventiveness turn the
poor island into a thriving colony.
Swept Away (1975)
 A yacht shipwrecks while on a cruise in the
Mediterranean.
 The only survivors are a rich woman and a lowly
deckhand.
 They fall in love.
 When they are rescued and return home, the woman
turns her back on the deckhand, who is once again just
a common laborer.
Swept Away (1975)
The movie sends three messages:
1. It is possible to be rich without working hard,
because one can inherit wealth.
2. One can work hard without becoming rich.
3. Inequality disappears only on the desert island,
without society as we know it.
Social Stratification
 Refers to the way society is organized in layers or
strata.
Wealth vs. Income
 Wealth: what you own minus debts (e.g., a house
minus the mortgage, a car minus the car loan, all funds
in the bank)
 Income: what you earn in a given period
10 Richest Americans, 2010
Name
Net Worth
($ billion)
Source
1
Bill Gates
54
Microsoft Corp.
2
Warren Buffet
45
Berkshire Hathaway
3
Lawrence
Joseph Ellison
27
Oracle Corp.
4 Christy Walton
24
Wal-Mart (inheritance)
21.5
Manufacturing
(inheritance)
5
Charles Koch
10 Richest Americans, 2010
Name
Net Worth
($ billion)
6
David Koch
21.5
7
Jim Walton
20.1
8
Alice Walton
20
9
S. Robinson Walton
19.7
10 Michael Bloomberg
18
Source
Manufacturing
(inheritance)
Wal-Mart
(inheritance)
Wal-Mart
(inheritance)
Wal-Mart
(inheritance)
Bloomberg
Average Wealth over Time
Income Classes, 2009
Income Class
% of
Households
Annual Income
Upper-upper
1.5
$1 million +
Lower-upper
15.2
$100,000-$999,999
Upper-middle
25.8
$60,000-$99,999
Income Classes, 2009
Income Class
% of
Households
Annual Income
Average-middle
21.4
$40,000-$59,999
Lower-middle or
working-
17.0
$25,000-$39,999
Lower
19.1
$0-$24,999
Vertical Social Mobility
 Refers to movement up or down the stratification
system.
Distribution of National
Income Among Households
Patterns of Income Inequalities
 Income inequality has been increasing in the United
States for a quarter of a century.
 1974 - Top fifth of households earned 9.8 times more
than the bottom fifth.
 2009 - Top fifth of households earned 14.8 times more
than the bottom fifth.
 2009 - Top 20% of households earned more than the
remaining 80%.
Global Inequality
 1/5 of the world’s population lacks shelter.
 More than 1/5 lacks safe water.
 1/3 of the world’s people are without electricity.
 More 2/5 lack adequate sanitation.
 There are still about 27 million slaves in Mozambique,
Sudan, and other African countries.
Polling Question

The citizens of poorer nations are more likely to
be lazy when compared to the citizens of richer
nations.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Strongly agree
Agree somewhat
Unsure
Disagree somewhat
Strongly disagree
U.N. Indicators of Human Development, Top 5
Countries, 2008-10
Country
and Rank
Life
Expectancy
Adult
Literacy
GDP/
Capita
Norway
81.0
99%
58,278
Australia
81.9
99%
40,286
New Zealand
80.6
99%
27,520
United States
79.6
99%
46,653
Ireland
80.3
99%
38,768
U.N. Indicators of Human Development
Bottom 5 Countries, 2008-10
Country
and Rank
Life
Expectancy
Adult
Literacy
GDP/
Capita
Mozambique
48.4
46.2
929
Burundi
51.4
59.3
403
Niger
52.5
28.7
677
Congo
48
67.2
327
Zimbabwe
47
92.6
187
Global Inequality
 Refers to differences in the economic ranking of
countries.
Crossnational Variations in Internal
Stratification
 Differences between countries in their stratification
systems.
Gini Index
 A measure of income inequality with a value ranging
from zero to 1.
 A Gini index of zero indicates every household earns
the same amount of money.
 A Gini index of 1 indicates that a single household
earns the entire national income.
 Most countries have Gini indexes between 0.2 and 0.5.
Household Income Inequality, 2000-08
Inequality and Development
Foraging Societies
 Societies in which people live by searching for wild
plants and hunting wild animals.
 Predominated until about 10,000 years ago.
 Inequality, the division of labor, productivity, and
settlement size are very low in such societies.
Horticultural and Pastoral Societies
 About 12,000 years ago, people established agricultural
settlements based on horticulture and pastoralism.
 These innovations enabled people to produce a surplus
above what they needed for subsistence.
 A small number of villagers controlled the surplus and
significant social stratification emerged.
Agricultural Societies
 People developed plow agriculture about 5,000 years
ago and were able to increase production and
surpluses.
 Agrarian societies developed religious beliefs
justifying steeper inequality.
 People viewed large landowners as “lords.”
 If you were born a peasant, you and your children were
likely to remain peasants.
Stratification Systems
 Ascription-based stratification systems
 A stratification system in which the allocation of rank
depends on the characteristics a person is born with.
 Achievement-based stratification system
 A stratification system in which the allocation of rank
depends on a person’s accomplishments.
Caste System
 An almost pure ascription-based stratification system
in which occupation and marriage partners are
assigned on the basis of caste membership.
Apartheid
 A caste system based on race that existed in South
Africa from 1948 until 1992.
 It consigned the black majority to menial jobs,
prevented marriage between blacks and whites, and
erected separate public facilities for members of the
two races.
 Asians and people of “mixed race” enjoyed privileges
between these two extremes.
Industrial Societies
 Use machines and fuel to increase the supply of food
and finished goods.
 Emerged about 225 years ago in Great Britain.
 Productivity, the division of labor, and settlement size
increased substantially.
 Social inequality was substantial during early
industrialism and declined as the industrial system
matured.
Postindustrial Societies
 Societies in which most workers are employed in the
service sector and computers spur increases in the
division of labor and productivity.
 Shortly after World War II, the U.S. became the first
postindustrial society.
 Gender inequality is reduced because so many women
are brought into higher education and the paid labor
force.
Conflict Theory: Marx
 A person’s class is determined by the source of his or
her income:
 The bourgeoisie owns the means of production.
 The proletariat do physical labor.
 Workers would develop class consciousness and
recognize their exploitation and try to create a new
“communist” society
Critical Evaluation of Marx
 Industrial societies did not polarize into two opposed
classes engaged in bitter conflict; rather a large middle
class emerged
 Investment in technology not only leads to profit but
also higher wages and fewer work hours
 Communism emerged in semi-industrialized countries
and new forms of stratification emerged
Functionalism:
The Davis-Moore Thesis
 Argues that:
 some jobs are more important than others
 people have to make sacrifices to train for important
jobs
 inequality is required to motivate people to undergo
these sacrifices.
Criticisms of Functionalism
 Inequality encourages the discovery of talent only for
those who can afford to take advantage of the
opportunities available to them.
 Once people attain high-class standing, they can use
their power to maintain their position and promote
the interests of their families regardless of their
children’s talent.
Theories of Stratification: Weber
 Four main classes:
 large property owners
 small property owners
 propertyless but relatively highly educated and well-paid
employees
 propertyless manual workers
Status Groups
 Groups that differ from one another in terms of the
prestige or social honor they enjoy and in terms of
their lifestyle.
Weber’s Stratification
Scheme
Parties
 In Weber’s usage, organizations that seek to impose
their will on others.
Mean Annual Earnings and Prestige Scores,
Selected Occupations, U.S.
Occupation
Physicians
Lawyers
Airline pilots
Aerospace
Engineers
Computer
Programmers
Median Annual
Income 2009
173,860
129.020
117,060
Prestige Score,
1989
86
75
61
96,270
72
74,690
61
Mean Annual Earnings and Prestige Scores,
Selected Occupations, U.S.
Occupation
Janitors
Restaurant Cooks
Sewing Machine
Operators
Secretaries
Median Annual
Income 2009
24,120
Prestige Score,
1989
22
23,110
31
22,250
28
21,035
46
Blau and Duncan’s Status
Attainment
 Looked at the relative importance of inheritance
versus individual merit in determining one’s place in
the stratification system
Socioeconomic index (SEI) of
occupational status
 An index developed by Blau and Duncan that
combines, for each occupation, average earnings and
years of education of men employed full time in the
occupation.
 Socioeconomic status (SES)
 Combines income, education, and occupational
prestige data in a single index of one’s position in the
socioeconomic hierarchy.
Blau and Duncan’s Model of
Occupational Achievement
Structural Mobility
 Social mobility that results from changes in the
distribution of occupations.
 Intragenerational mobility
 Social mobility that occurs within a single generation.
 Intergenerational mobility
 Social mobility that occurs between generations.
Poverty Rate
 The percentage of people living below the poverty
threshold, which is three times the minimum food
budget established by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Government Policy and the Poverty
Rate in the U.S.
 Fluctuations in the poverty rate are related to political
events.
 Between 1961 and 2009:
 The poverty rate fell in 16 of the 21 years in which the
president was a Democrat (76%) but in only 14 of the 28
years in which the president was a Republican (50%).
Polling Question

Many poor people simply don't want to work hard.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Strongly agree
Agree somewhat
Unsure
Disagree somewhat
Strongly disagree
Myths about the poor
1. The majority of poor people are African- or HispanicAmerican single mothers with children.
 In 2009, fully 43% of the poor were non-Hispanic whites
 Female-headed families represented 47% of the poor.
Myths about the poor
2. People are poor because they don’t want to work.
 More than 11% of the poor over age 15 worked in 2009.
 43% of poor people are under age 18 or over 65.
 Many of the poor are unable to work due to health or
disability issues.
Myths about the poor
3. Poor people are trapped in poverty.
 Poverty population is dynamic
 Only about 12% of the poor remain poor 5 or more years
in a row
Myths about the poor
4. Welfare encourages married women with children to
divorce so they can collect welfare, and it encourages
single women on welfare to have more children.
 Women on welfare have a lower birthrate than women in
the general population.
 Welfare payments are very low and recipients suffer
severe economic hardship.
Myths about the poor
5. Welfare is a strain on the federal budget and does little
to decrease the poverty rate.
 Welfare spending amounts to less than 11% of the federal
budget (compared to 17% in the U.K.)
 Job-training and child care programs allow many poor
people to take jobs
Poverty in the U.S., 2009
1. One’s wealth includes which of the following:
a.
b.
c.
d.
Earnings from work
House minus mortgage
Car minus car loan
Answers b and c
Answer: d
 One’s wealth includes: house minus mortgage and
car minus car loan.
2. Since the early 1960s:
a.
b.
c.
more downward than upward mobility has
occurred in the United States
the amount of downward and upward mobility
has been about equal
more upward than downward mobility has
occurred in the United States, and the gap
between upward and downward mobility started
to shrink when many Americans reported
deterioration in their economic situation
Answer: c
1.
Since the early 1960s: more upward than
downward mobility has occurred in the United
States, and the gap between upward and
downward mobility started to shrink when
many Americans reported deterioration in their
economic situation.
3. For Marx, the bourgeoisie:
a.
b.
c.
d.
own the means of production
do not do any physical labor
own the means of production and do physical work
themselves
own the means of production, and do not do any
physical labor
Answer: d
 For Marx, the bourgeoisie own the means of
production, and do not do any physical labor.
4. Which of the following is not one of the major
classes in capitalist society according to Weber?
a.
b.
c.
d.
large property owners
small property owners
service workers
property-less but educated and well-paid employees
Answer: c

Service workers are not one of the major classes in
capitalist society according to Weber.
5. According to the functional theory of
stratification, social inequality is necessary
because the prospect of high material rewards
motivates people to undergo the sacrifices
needed to get a higher education.
a.
b.
True
False
Answer: True
 According to the functional theory of stratification,
social inequality is necessary because the prospect of
high material rewards motivates people to undergo the
sacrifices needed to get a higher education.