Good Morning!!
 Pick up an answer sheet on the stand in the front and use it to identify
whether the person/people in each photo are RICH, POOR, or IN THE
MIDDLE. How do you know?
#2
#1
#3
US Class Structure
Social Classes
 Categories of people who have about the same
amount of income, power and prestige
 How do we identify a person’s class?
 3 methods:
 Reputational
 Subjective
 Objective
Reputational Method
• Identifying social classes by selecting a group of
people and asking them to rank others
– These informants have been living in the
community for a long time and can rank many
other residents on the basis of their reputation
• “where does the town drunk rank? Where does the
respectable banker rank?
Subjective Method
 Identifying social classes by asking people to rank
themselves
 If asked whether they are upper, middle or lower
class, people will most likely identify as middle class
 To call yourself upper class is to appear snobby
 To call yourself lower class is demeaning
 If given the fourth choice: working class- many will
identify with that instead
Objective Method
 Identifying social classes using income, occupation, and
education to rank people
 Useful for identifying classes of large populations
 Sociologists can easily obtain the information
 The combination if occupation, income and education
constitutes what sociologists call socioeconomic status
 Exerts a powerful influence on our lives
 Its difficult to differentiate the people in the middle class
Upper Class/ Capitalist Class
 Top 1% of the population
 Owns 1/3 of all U.S. assets
 Great power and influence
 Direct access to top politicians
 Decisions open and close job opportunities for millions of people
 Shape or views and opinions Own major media and entertainment outlets
 Pass on their privilege, assets, and social networks to their
children.
 Live in exclusive areas, belong to private social clubs, and tend
to marry their own kind
 Tend to be conscious of being members of a class
Old money v. New money
 Old money- people who are from wealthy families
whom have been wealthy for a long time
 Attend exclusive private schools- socialized to learn
the views that support their status and privilege
 Rarely work for wages- instead go into business or
law to protect their and manage their family fortune
 New money- newly rich people who have made
fortunes in business, the stock market, inventions,
entertainment or sports
 Outsiders to the “old rich”
The Upper-Middle Class
 Distinguished from upper class by their lesser
wealth and power and from those below them by
their careers (Doctors, lawyers, etc.)
 Many have graduated from prestigious
universities and have advanced degrees
 Manage the corporations owned by the capitalist
operate their own business or profession
The Middle Class
 Constitutes the largest class in the US
 More diverse in occupation than the upper-middle
class
 Made up of people with college educations or at least
a high school diploma
 Work in low to mid-level white collar occupations
 Have achieved the middle-class dream of owning a
suburban home
The Working Class
 Consists primarily of those who have little education and
whose jobs are manual and carry little prestige
 Part-time work and union membership
 May make more $ than some in the middle class but their
jobs are more physically demanding and more dangerous
 Others are unskilled workers
 Many women in this class
 Underpaid and face critical hardships
 KNOWN AS THE WORKING POOR
The Lower Class
 Joblessness and poverty
 Chronically unemployed, welfare recipients, and
impoverished aged
 Live in run down houses, wear old clothes, eat cheap
food and lack proper medical care
 Few have finished high school
 Low paying, unskilled jobs
 Many are stigmatized as the underclass- poor people as
criminals or welfare mothers
Influence of Class- Health
 Life Chances: the likelihood of living a good, long, successful
life
 People in lower classes generally live shorter and less
healthy lives
 An infant born into a poor family is much more likely to die during
the first year
 Why?
 Healthcare- access and quality
 Lifestyle- more likely to smoke, eat unhealthy food (healthy
diet cost $500 more), be overweight, abuse drugs, etc.
 Life is hard for the poor- impact of stress on the body
Mental Health
 Mental health of lower class is worse than upper
class
 Due to high stress
 Less job security and lower wages
 More likely to divorce
 More likely to be a victim of crime
 Not as many outlets
 Vacations, psychiatrists, counselors
Family Life
 Social class plays a role in family life including
choices of spouse, divorce rate and raising children
 Upper classes place strong emphasis on family
tradition
 Stress family ancestors, history, etc.
 Children learn that their choice of husband or
wife affects the entire family (The “family line”)
 Parents play a larger role in their children’s spouse
selection
Education, religion, politics
 Education increases as one goes up the social ladder
 Amount and type- private v. public
 Classes tend to cluster in different religious
denominations
 Episcopalians are more likely to attract middle and
upper class
 Baptist draw heavily from the lower class
 Can be explained by geography
 The higher the class, the more conservative they are on
economic issues but more liberal on social issues
Lifestyle
 Lifestyles- tastes, preferences and ways of living
 Upper and middle class people are likely to
 be active outside their homes
 PTSO, charitable organization, etc.
 to make friends with professional colleagues
 Combine social and business lives
 Working class tend to restrict their social lives
to families
 Seldom socialize with coworkers or neighbors