The United States of
America is a classless and
egalitarian society.
Do you agree or disagree with
that statement?
How Much Do You Know About Wealth,
Poverty, and the American Dream?
True or False?

People no longer believe in the American
Dream.
How Much Do You Know About Wealth,
Poverty, and the American Dream?
False.

The American Dream appears to be alive and
well. U.S. culture places a strong emphasis on
the goal of monetary success, and many people
use legal or illegal means to attempt to achieve
that goal.
Dimension’s of Social Inequality
in the United States
How Much Do You Know About Wealth,
Poverty, and the American Dream?
True or False?

One in three U.S. children will be poor at some
point of their childhood.
How Much Do You Know About Wealth,
Poverty, and the American Dream?
True.
 According to recent data from the Children’s
Defense Fund, one in three U.S. children will
live in a family that is below the official
poverty line at some point in their childhood.
 For some of these children, poverty will be a
persistent problem throughout their childhood
and youth.
What Is Social Stratification
The hierarchical arrangement of large social
groups based on their control over basic resources.
 Stratification involves patterns of structural
inequality associated with membership in these
groups.
 Resources are anything valued in a society
(money, property, medical care, education).
 Life chances refers to the extent to which
individuals have access to resources.
Social Mobility – (family tree
handout)
The movement of individuals or groups
from one level in a stratification system to
another.
Intergenerational mobility is the social
movement experienced by family members
from one generation to the next.
Intragenerational mobility is the social
movement of individuals within their own
lifetime.
Class System
The class system is a type of stratification
based on the ownership and control of
resources and on the type of work people
do.
What class of people are there in CB?
What are the characteristics that tell you
someone’s social class?
People in the US are stratified
based on the following:
Income
Wealth
Prestige
Education
Power
Income
Wages or salaries from work and
earnings from investments.
Income
Wages or salaries from work and earnings
from investments.
Distribution of Income in the US
5th
Next 5th
Third 5th
Fourth 5th
Bottom 5th
Top
47%
24%
16%
10%
4%
Distribution of Pretax Income in
the United States
Average After-Tax Family Income in the
U.S.
Median Income by State
Wealth
Total value of money and other assets, minus
outstanding debts.
Distribution of Wealth in the US
Top 5th
Next 5th
Third 5th
Fourth 5th
Bottom 5th
Wealth
Total value of money and other assets, minus
outstanding debts.
Distribution of Wealth in the US
Top 5th
80%
Next 5th
15%
Third 5th
5%
Fourth 5th
less than 1%
Bottom 5th
less than 1%
Significance of Wealth
..\..\Chapter Eight-
New\Wealthn statistics.docx ..\..\Chapter Eight- New\wealth.pdf
Wealth is the starting line for the next generationhelping finance children's education, helping
them through hard times, or helping with the
down payment on their own home.
Economists estimate 50-80% of one's lifetime
wealth accumulation can be traced to this head
start.
As wealth gets passed down from generation to
generation, the legacy of past discrimination
accumulates, giving different classes vastly
different life chances.
Race and Wealth
Today, the net worth of the average white family
is Eight times as much as the average black
family.
Probably no one statistic better captures the
cumulative disadvantage of past discrimination
than wealth.
Even at the same income levels, whites still have,
on average, twice as much wealth as nonwhites.
Much of this difference is due to the different
rates of home ownership and the different values
of homes in white and Black neighborhoods.
Household Income by
Race/Ethnicity in the U.S.
Power
The ability to get people to do what
you want.
Schooling
Affects both occupation and
income.
Prestige
Respect
Primarily based on Occupation
 White Collar
 Blue Collar
 Pink Collar
Weber’s Multidimensional
Approach to Social Stratification
Prestige Ratings for Selected Occupations:
1996 and 1963
Occupation
Physician
Attorney
College professor
Dentist
Grade school
teacher
Score
1996
1963
86
93
75
89
74
90
72
88
64
82
Prestige Ratings for Selected Occupations:
1996 and 1963
Score
Occupation
1996
1963
Police Officer
60
72
Mail Carrier
47
66
Garbage collector
28
39
Janitor
22
48
Shoe shiner
9
34
Weber’s model of class
Upper Class - comprised of people who
own substantial income-producing assets.
Upper-Middle Class - based on university
degrees, authority on the job, and high
income.
Middle Class - a minimum of a high
school diploma or a community college
degree.
Weber’s model of class
Working Class - semiskilled workers, in
routine, mechanized jobs, and workers in
pink collar occupations.
Working Poor - live just above to just
below the poverty line.
Underclass - people who are poor, seldom
employed, and caught in long-term
deprivation.
Income and Wealth
Income - wages, salaries, government aid, and
property
Wealth - value of economic assets, including
income and property.
Socioeconomic status (SES) refers to a combined
measure that attempts to classify individuals,
families, or households in terms of factors such as
income, occupation, and education to determine
class location.
Stratification Based on Education,
Occupation and Income
Defining Poverty
Sociologists distinguish between absolute and
relative poverty.
 Absolute poverty exists when people do not
have the means to secure the most basic
necessities of life.
 Relative poverty exists when people may be
able to afford basic necessities but are still
unable to maintain an average standard of
living.
Population without Health Insurance:
U.S.
% Distribution of Poverty in the
U.S.
Education
All
Races
No diploma
High School
Graduate
Some
college
College
degree
(or more)
White
African
American
Hispanic
22.3
18.0
32.9
25.0
9.6
7.4
19.6
14.7
6.6
5.5
11.0
9.7
3.3
2.6
5.3
6.5
% Distribution of Poverty in the
U.S.
Age
All
White
African
American
Under 18
16.3
9.5
30.2
28.0
18–24
16.3
12.3
26.8
21.0
25-44
9.8
6.7
17.5
17.9
45-64
8.7
6.9
17.2
15.8
65 and
above
10.1
8.1
21.9
21.8
Hispanic
Feminization of Poverty
The trend in which women are
disproportionately represented among
individuals living in poverty.
Women single heads of households bear the
major economic and emotional burdens of
raising children but earn between 70 and 80
cents for every dollar a male worker earns.
Why do people tend to underestimate
stratification in the United States?
In principle, the law gives equal standing
to all.
Our culture celebrates individual
autonomy and achievement.
We tend to interact with people like
ourselves.
The United States is an affluent society
with and overall high standard of living.
What does it mean to feel
invisible in our society?
How do you explain this school’s
fascination with the mullet?
Is there a class
issue?
Consider the following question:
To what extent does the United States
have a class system and to what extent
does the United States have a caste
system?
Classes is the United States
Upper-Class
 Upper-Uppers
 Lower-Uppers
Middle Class
 Upper Middles
 Average Middles
The Working Class
The Lower Class
How should someone’s salary be
determined?
Compare the information you
researched about CEO
compensation.
Compare the FIVE companies you each chose.
What is your reaction to the information
presented there?
Do these CEOs deserve their pay?
Executive Pay around the World
According to the Economist,
in Japan a typical executive makes
11 times what a typical worker
brings home.
In Germany, 12 times.
In Britain, 22 times.
In Mexico, 47 Times.
Executive Pay around the World
In America a typical executive
makes 475 times what a typical
worker brings home.
Is this an issue for concern?
Executive Pay ..\.
.\Chapter Eight- New\Executive Compensation.docx
In 1968, the head of General Motors
received about $4 million in today's dollars
- and that was considered extravagant.
In 2004, Scott Lee Jr., Wal-Mart's chief
executive, was paid $17.5 million. That is,
every two weeks Mr. Lee was paid about as
much as his average employee will earn in a
lifetime.
“Poverty is the worst form of
violence.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
Poverty Thresholds in the US
for 2001 by Size of Family
One person
Two persons
Three persons
Four persons
Five persons
Six persons
$ 9,214
$11,859
$13,853
$18,267
$22,029
$25,337
Who are the poor?
Age
Race and Ethnicity
Gender and family patterns
Who are the poor?
Age- children are most likely to be poor
Race and Ethnicity- 2/3 of poor people
are white but minorities are
disproportionately more likely to be
poor.
Gender and family patterns- women
and female headed households.
Effects of divorce.
Poverty in the United States
About 31.1 million people were poor in 2000.
Blacks (22.1 percent) and female-householder
families (24.7 percent) had their lowest measured
poverty rates in 2000.
In 1993, the Black poverty rate was 23.2
percentage points higher than that for White nonHispanics; by 2000 this difference had fallen to
14.6 percentage points.
Poverty in the United StatesChildren Hunger Facts.doc
America’s children are almost twice as likely to
live in poverty as Americans in any other age
group.
37 percent of American children (27 million
children) live in low-income families.
16 percent of children (over 11 million children)
live in poverty.
The United States’ child poverty rate is often twoto-three times higher than that of most other major
Western industrialized nations.
The Working Poor in the United
States
In 1996 17.1 percent of the heads of
poor families labored for fifty or
more hours a week.
Poor family members in 2000 were
more likely to be living with at least
one worker than they were at the
most recent poverty rate peak in
1993.
Is it more accurate to blame
society or blame the poor for
poverty in America?
The United States should initiate a class-based
affirmative action program for college
admission and company hiring.
Strongly
Disagree
Strongly
Agree
Somewhat
Disagree
Somewhat
Agree
“When I gave food to the
poor, they called me a
saint. When I asked why
the poor were hungry, they
called me a communist.”
- Dom H. Camara
Social Mobility- Myth vs. Reality
Social Mobility, at least among men, has
been fairly high.
The long term trend in social mobility has
been upward.
Within a single generation, social mobility is
usually incremental, not dramatic.
The Short term trend has been stagnation
with some polarization.
Is the “American Dream” still a
reality?
Is the “American Dream” still a
reality?
For many workers, earnings
have stalled.
Multiple job-holding is up.
More jobs offer little income.
Young people are remaining at
home.
The distribution of income has
changed markedly from 1977-99
Race and Ethnicity
Race and Racism
The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye;
the more light you pour on it, the more it will
contract.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
A great many people think they are thinking
when they are merely rearranging their
prejudices.
- Edward R. Murrow
Prejudices are what fools use for reason.
- Voltaire
What race is this guy?
What race is this guy?
Tiger Woods is one-eighth Native
American, one-eighth AfricanAmerican, one-quarter white, onequarter Chinese and one-quarter
Thai.
“So why isn't anyone excited about
the first Thai player to win the
Masters? And who has said a word
about a Native American breaking the
Social Meaning of Race and
Ethnicity
Race- category composed of
people who share biological
traits that members of society
deem socially important.
Race is a social construction.
Social Meaning of Race and
Ethnicity
Ethnicity- A shared cultural
heritage.
Levels of Minority-Majority
interaction
Pluralism
Assimilation
Segregation
Genocide
Levels of Minority-Majority
interaction
Pluralism- is a state in which racial and ethnic
minorities are distinct but have social parity.
Assimilation- is the process by which
minorities gradually adopt patterns of the
dominate culture.
Segregation- physical and social separation of
categories of people.
Genocide- systematic annihilation of one
category of people by another.
Do you go to a segregated
school?
Do you go to a segregated
school?
De Jure segregation
De Facto segregation
Do you believe that schools are
more segregated today than they
were in 1954?
Look at the study from
Harvard University.
Race in the United States (2000)
White
Black
American Indian
Asian
Hispanic (of any race)
Two or more races
75.1%
12.3%
0.9%
3.6%
12.5%
2.4%
Stratification in
Southeastern PA
Use the census information to compare
Bucks and Philadelphia counties.
 Identify THREE pieces of information
that you find important or interesting.
 Formulate TWO questions you have
about the data.
 Create ONE general statement that
summarizes the information.
Poor People in Pennsylvania
Why aren’t we integrated?
and is integration really
what people want?
Barriers to integration
Prejudice- rigid and irrational
generalizations about an entire
category of people.
Discrimination- treating various
categories of people differently.
Patterns of Discrimination and
Prejudice
Robert Merton
 Active
Bigot
 Timid Bigot
 Fair-Weather Liberal
 All-Weather Liberal
Patterns of Discrimination and
Prejudice
Discriminate
Prejudiced
Yes
No
Yes
Active Bigot
No
Timid Bigot
Fair-Weather All-Weather
Liberal
Liberal
Patterns of Discrimination and
Prejudice
Stereotypes
Prejudice
Stereotypes- prejudicial views about a
category of people. Since they involve
emotions, they are hard to change.
Racism- belief that one racial category is
innately superior or inferior to another.
Theories of Prejudice
 Scapegoat Theory
 Authoritarian Personality Theory
 Cultural Theory
 Conflict Theory
Discrimination
Examples of Discrimination?
Institutional Discrimination
 Is
it possible to have an institution
that discriminates even if no one
who works in the institution is
prejudiced?
Are these “Got Milk?”ads racist?
Institutional Racism?
Studies suggest that 70 percent of AfricanAmericans, 50 percent of Hispanics, and 90
percent of Asians have trouble digesting
lactose, while only 15 percent of Caucasians
do. In other words, milk makes them sick.
Some say that the USDA's indifference to
lactose intolerance is reflective of the federal
government's lack of concern for the particular
health needs of minorities.
White-skin privilege
“The slick thing about whiteness is
that you can reap the benefits of
a racist society without personally
being a racist”
-John A. Powell
Legal scholar
Examples of white-skin privilege
Being able to turn on the television and see
people of their race widely and accurately
represented.
Never being asked to speak on behalf of their
entire race.
Being able to buy "flesh" colored band-aids
which closely match their skin.
Being pretty sure that if they go into a business
to speak with the “person in charge” they will
be facing a person of your race.
Others?
Discuss your impressions of the
race websites with a partner.
Readings
Evaluate the positions of Tim Wise
and Bill Cosby on race in
American and decide who has a
more effective approach to
increasing equality.
What questions do you have
about race/racism?
For example, questions about
“all black” TV stations, use
of the “N” word, interracial
relationships, etc.
Consequences of Racism
On the minority or target group:
Low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and
physical illness.
Internalized racism (Unquestioned acceptance
of the myth of racial inferiority).
Limited access to necessary and desired
resources.
Limited freedom and death.
On the majority or dominant
group:
Continued ignorance of and isolation from
others.
A challenge to humanistic values, creating an
impairment of moral development.
Pressure to maintain the status quo.
Perpetuation of group conformity, which
limits individual and intellectual growth and
undermines authentic relationships.
What can we do to help race
relations in the US?
Some Possible Solutions
Individual Level:
Individuals holding each other
accountable for recognizing and
countering racial beliefs and practices.
Majority individuals engaging in diversity
trainings and joining minority individuals
in grass root efforts to combat racism.
Individuals engaging in cross-cultural
friendships and relationships.
Some Possible Solutions
Institutional Level:
Insure minorities’ full participation in the
political system.
Inclusion of ethnically diverse
contributions, values, and perspectives into
the educational curriculum and practices.
The implementation of a laws and strategies
that aim to give those who for generations
have been and continue to be denied the
opportunity of a higher education.
Some Possible Solutions
Cultural Level:
A media system that portrays minorities
in a realistic rather than stereotypical
and negative light.
Celebration, education, and integration
of different cultural traditions into
society.
Some gender issues
Sexism is the belief that one sex is
innately superior to the other.
Gender Stratification refers to a
society’s unequal distribution of
wealth, power and privilege between
men and women.
Use pp 326-333 to complete this
graphic organizer:
Men
Occupations
Housework
Income and
Wealth
Educational
attainment
Politics
Women
Use pp 326-333 to complete this
graphic organizer:
How do you account for the
differences presented on your chart?
Are women a minority?
Women’s websites
How many of the women had you heard of
on the “Women Pioneers & Trailblazers”
page?
What did you learn from the information
presented?
What is the purpose and audience for the
feminist.org/ and oxygen.com websites?
What was your impression of all these
sites?
Homophobia
An irrational fear of
gay people.
Are the elderly a minority?
illustration
Review the information covered in this unit.
Consider the extent and basis of stratification in
the United States.
Draw a political cartoon that illustrates the
stratification system in the US.
Demonstrate understanding of the concepts.
 Demonstrate a position on the topic.
 Demonstrate effort in your drawing.
