Socioeconomic Status and Social Inequality
• Class system: an economically based
hierarchical system characterized by
cohesive, oppositional groups and
somewhat loose social mobility.
• Social class: a system of stratification
based on access to resources such as
wealth, property, power, and prestige.
• Sociologists often refer to social class as
socioeconomic status (or SES).
Socioeconomic Status
• Economic capital: Financial resources that
are or can be converted into money
• Income: money received by a person for work,
from transfers (gifts, inheritances, or government
assistance), or from returns on investments.
• Wealth: is a family’s or individual’s net worth
(total assets minus total debts).
• Educational Attainment
• Occupational Prestige
The Relative Social Prestige of Selected
Occupations in the United States
Socioeconomic Status
• Status Inconsistency: a situation in
which an individual has differing levels
of status in terms of wealth, power,
prestige, or other elements of
socioeconomic status
Educational Attainment
Educational Attainment
Income Distribution in the U.S.
Income Distribution in the U.S. Over
Time
Income Distribution in the U.S. Over
Time
Wealth Distribution in the U.S.
Wealth Distribution in the U.S. Over
Time
Wealth Distribution in the U.S.
Connecticut
• The wealthiest and most unequal state
in the country
Social Stratification and Social
Inequality
Social stratification is the division of
society into groups arranged in a social
hierarchy
• Every society has some form of stratification
according to a variety of criteria (such as
race, class, and gender) but differ in regard
to types and amounts and social mobility
Social mobility: Opportunity to move up or
down in the economic hierarchy
Modernity Again
Capitalism: An
economic system
based on private
ownership of the
resources used to
create wealth and
the right of
individuals to
personally profit.
Review of Marx
•Proletariat: A class of people who are employed by the
bourgeoise and work for a wage.
•Bourgeoise: A class of people who own the means of production.
•Means of production: Resources that can be used to create wealth
•Crisis of capitalism: A coming catastrophic implosion from which
capitalism would never recover.
•Class consciousness: An understanding that members of a social
class share economic interests.
•Socialism: an economic system based on shared ownership of the
means of production
The Guilded Age
The period in American history that most resembles
Marx’s apocalyptic vision of capitalism (1870–1900).
• By 1890, the 1 percent were so rich that they owned
more property than every other American combined.
• In 1916, the oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller would
become the world’s first billionaire.
• There was very little oversight of companies. The most
successful capitalists built monopolies, treated workers
inhumanely, bribed politicians and law enforcement,
and made shady deals with other business owners.
The New Deal
Financial reforms and regulations
• Break up monopolies, enforce fair business practices,
protect workers and their right to unionize, end child
labor, and the creation of the national labor relations
board
The beginnings of a federal social safety net
• A patchwork of programs designed to protect people
from the risks of loss of income due to
unemployment, disability, divorce, poor health,
or retirement.
The New Guilded Age
Inequality & Social Mobility
Inequality & Social Mobility
Social Mobility
Social Mobility
Social Mobility
Inequality & the Ideology of the
American Dream
• The American Dream:
• is the ideology that anyone can achieve
material success if he or she works hard
enough
• explains and justifies economic inequality
in our social system
• has been criticized for legitimizing
stratification by implying that everyone has
the same opportunity to get ahead