Chapter 8
Social Class:
The Structure of
Inequality
Overview
• Social Stratification
 Components of Social Class
• Theories of Social Class
 Video Presentation: “People Like Us”
• SES and Life Chances
• Social Mobility
 “The American Dream”
• Poverty and the Poor
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SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
Macro-level analysis
• Society is grouped into strata
 Hierarchy, levels, layers
• A system for ranking and dividing large groups of people
 Every society stratifies members
 Almost every aspect of life is linked to position in social
hierarchy
 Persistent over generations
• Results in social inequality
 Unequal division and sharing of social resources/rewards
• Systems of stratification
 Slavery, caste, social class
• Stratification in the U.S.
 Social class; race and ethnicity; sex and gender
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SOCIAL CLASS
• Defining Social Class
 Based on access to social resources/rewards
 A large group who rank closely to one another
in:
• wealth, power, prestige
 Socioeconomic Status (SES)
• A measure of one’s place within class system
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Components of Social Class: WEALTH
• Wealth consists of property
and income
 Wealth and income are
not the same
 Some have wealth but
little income
• “Old” and “New” Money
• Unequal distribution of
wealth in the U.S.
 Top 1% owns 35%
 Top 20% owns 50%
 Bottom 80% owns 15%
Components of Social Class:
• POWER
 The ability to carry out
one’s will despite
resistance
 The “Power Elite”
• C. Wright Mills
• Those who make the
big decisions in U.S.
society
 Power is concentrated
in the hands of the few
• PRESTIGE
 Social honor
• Membership in wellregarded group
 Occupational prestige
• How a person is
perceived by others
• Can affect wealth and
power
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Components of Social Class: STATUS
• Social ranking
 Similar in wealth, power,
prestige:
• Status consistency
 A mix of high and low
rankings:
• Status inconsistency
Theories of Social Class:
Postmodernism
• Social
Reproduction
 Pierre Bourdieu
• Classes remain
relatively stable
 Status passed down
through generations
• Each generation
acquires cultural
capital
 Tastes, habits,
expectations, skills, etc.
 Can help or hinder us
from gaining advantages
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Theories of Social Class:
Symbolic Interactionism
• Class Consciousness (Awareness)
• Erving Goffman
• How we use status “cues” to
categorize ourselves and others
 Speech, gestures, clothing, possessions,
friends, activities, etc.
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Video Presentation
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Socioeconomic Status and Life Chances
 Inequality shapes life course
• Privileges, hardships, differences
 Family
• Homogamy, age of marriage, child rearing
 Education
• Access, attitudes and expectations; attainment and status
 Work
• White- vs. blue-collar occupations, income gap, un- and underemployment
 Criminal Justice
• Who gets caught, prosecuted and sentenced; victimhood
 Health
• Feeling good, health practices, life expectancy
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SOCIAL MOBILITY
• Movement of individuals or groups within class hierarchy
 U.S. has “open” system
• Change is possible
• What are your chances?
 Vertical (upward and downward)
 Horizontal
• Types:
 Intergenerational mobility
• Movement from one generation to the next
 Intragenerational mobility
• Movement during one’s own lifetime
 Structural mobility
• Movement of large groups of people
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Wealth Quiz
Country A
Country B
Country C
Which nations do the charts above represent?
1. The United States, Spain and Egypt
2. Freedonia, Sweden and the United States
3. Luxembourg, the United States and Somalia
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Wealth Quiz
Country A
Country B
Country C
Which place would you like to live in?
1. Country A
2. Country B
3. Country C
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Video Clip
“Land of the Free,
Home of the Poor”
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The “American Dream”
The belief that:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Everyone can participate
equally and can always start
over
It is reasonable to anticipate
success
Success is a result of
individual characteristics
and actions under one’s
control
Success is associated with
virtue and merit
The American Dream
• Ideology
 A belief system that legitimizes
stratification
• Everyone has equal chance
• Success or failure depends on
individual
 The U.S. meritocracy
• Rewards are based on merit
 Upward mobility may be limited
• Factors such as nationality, race
and gender
• Recession
 Shrinking middle class
• In-Class Exercise
• Questioning the Dream
 The “good life” and
consumption
• Americans are less secure
and satisfied
– More in debt
• Less free time and more
rushed
 The Simplicity Movement
• Alternative, non-materialist
values
• Encourages downsizing
POVERTY AND THE POOR
• Definitions:
 Relative deprivation
• Inability to maintain customary standard of living
 Absolute deprivation
• Inability to meet minimal standards
 Poverty line (2010)
• Based on household budget
– $22,314 family of 4; $11,139 individual
• Poverty in U.S.—2010
 46.2 million people
 or 15.1% of the population
 or 1 in every 6.5 citizens
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Who are the Poor?
• They are a very diverse group
 Clustered by:
• Race and Ethnicity
• Age
• Gender
• Educational Level
• Geographic Region
• Country of Origin
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The Working Poor
• Minimum Wage
 Federal: $7.25
 California: $8.00
• Many adults below
poverty line work for a
living
 Often low-paying,
seasonal, temp, or
part-time jobs
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Social Welfare Programs
• The “New Deal” and social
safety nets
 FDR 1933-1937
• Social insurance programs: Social
Security, disability, minimum wage
• The “Great Society” and the war
on poverty
 LBJ 1963-1969
• Public assistance programs:
Medicare and Medicaid, food
stamps, Head Start
• Welfare Reform
 Clinton 1996-2000
• “Welfare to work”, limit
of 5 years
• The “New New Deal”
 Obama 2009-
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Poverty in the U.S.
• “The Culture of Poverty”
 Focus on attitudes among poor
• Resignation and fatalism
– Rather than trying to
improve circumstances
• Poverty is self-perpetuating
 Critics call this “blaming the
victim”
• Must see structural conditions
that lead to poverty
• The “Just-World Hypothesis”
 The deep need to see the world
as orderly, predictable and fair
• Tendency to view victims of
injustice as deserving of their
fate
• Invisibility of Poverty
 Large part of U.S. population
remains hidden
• Few images of poverty in
America
• Residential Segregation
 Separation or isolation of poor
from rest of the population
• Often occurs along racial lines
• Political Disenfranchisement
 Removal of rights through
economic or political means
• Poor participate in politics less
• Lack power and visibility
of their issues
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Global Poverty
• Global Rich List (globalrichlist.com)
 The 225 richest people in the world have a combined wealth of
$1,000,000,000,000 (trillion)
 Equal to the combined income of the world’s 2.5 billion poorest
people
• Wonder what it would be like to have that kind of money?
 Where would you be on a list of the richest people in the world?
• If you have an annual income of $50,000
 You are in the top 0.98% richest people in the world
 You are the 59,029,289 richest person in the world
• How do you feel about being so rich?
 The lives of many of the poorest in the world could be improved
dramatically if you donated just one hour's salary (approx $26.70)
• The One Campaign (one.org)
 Campaign to make poverty history
 Increase federal budget aid to world poverty one percent
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Next …
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