The American Class System
&
Poverty

SOCIAL CLASS CATEGORY
UPPER CLASS
UPPER MIDDLE CLASS
LOWER MIDDLE CLASS
WORKING CLASS
WORKING POOR
UNDERCLASS
DESCRIPTION
Top 1% of the population that controls majority of the nation’s wealth. “old money” has more status than “new money”; very powerful/influential; tend to be conservative politically
High income business people/professionals; college educated; career oriented; politically active yet not as influential as the upper class
“white collar” workers – educated but not as well as above; comfortable in terms of wealth but must work very hard to maintain their status.
Manual laborers (“blue collar”); limited financial reserves (“paycheck to paycheck”) so a precarious position…
Lowest paid workers (minimum wage & seasonal workers); many must depend on gov’t. support to make ends meet; many are high school drop outs
Families that have experienced unemployment & poverty for several generations; chief source of income is public assistance.

• REPUTATIONAL METHOD:
• SUBJECTIVE METHOD:
• OBJECTIVE METHOD:

• The movement between or within a social class level; found in open systems.
• 3 types of social mobility are identified…
• 1)Horizontal – movement within a social class that doesn’t lead to great change in wealth/power/prestige;
• 2) Vertical – movement to a new social class – can be up or down.
• 3) Intergenerational – status differences between individuals within a family; will you do better than your parents or stay within the same social class?

• Structural causes of upward mobility…
• EX: Advances in technology; general increase in education levels.
• Structural causes of downward mobility…
• EX: changes in economy! http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/0
4/workers-left-behind/

• 3 articles are available for you to read. Each one connects with a major term/concept from chapter 9 that was explained in this power point.
• Read each article and complete the article analysis worksheet distributed in class. Finish for HW if necessary.

STRUCTURAL DOWNWARD MOBILITY
• ARTICLE 1 :
“Downward Mobility is Crushing the American
Dream” (2012)
• TERMS FROM TEXT : mobility; downward mobility; economic status; middle class; income inequality.
• SUMMARY :
Many middle class Americans are experiencing downward social mobility which goes directly against the “American
Dream” of = access to upward mobility. The US is no longer the best nation for upward mobility (Europe, Canada). Globalization is a major cause of this but also it’s unequal access to education, which is the best determiner of upward mobility. Wealthy children have better opportunities & the disparities between them & the middle class are becoming larger.
• COMPARISON TO TEXT : This article supports the information in the text
(p. 218) on intergenerational mobility and education.

STRUCTURAL DOWNWARD MOBILITY
• ARTICLE 2 :
“The Jobs They are A-Changin’” (2011)
• TERMS FROM TEXT : Structural shifts; recession; vertical and horizontal mobility
• SUMMARY:
Due to structural unemployment & the ongoing recession many displaced US workers have had to change careers in order to get back to work. In some cases the career switch was a vertical move (up and down) & in others it was a horizontal move. The security of the new jobs outweighed the negatives in most cases.
• COMPARISON TO TEXT: The article supported the text as far as the structural causes of upward & downward mobility (p. 218, 220)

STRUCTURAL DOWNWARD MOBILITY
• ARTICLE 3
: “Economic Mobility of Families Across
Generations” (2012)
• TERMS FROM TExT: intergenerational mobility; vertical mobility; class of origin; horizontal mobility.
• SUMMARY:
Intergenerational mobility in the US is changing.
While many in the current generation have experienced upward vertical mobility, an increasing percentage are staying the same (horizontal mobility) or are worse off than their parents were in terms of income
(downward vertical mobility).
• COMPARISON TO TEXT
: The article supported the text on intergenerational mobility and structural causes of mobility (p. 218).

• Although the US is one of the richest countries in the world, not everyone shares equally in this prosperity. About 15% of Americans live below the poverty line (up from 11% when your text was published). Poverty article
• The Other America, a book by Michael Harrington was an influential study of poverty in the US, published in 1962. The book is credited with starting America’s “War on Poverty” under
President Johnson.
• Today's Other America: Living in Poverty (CNN)