Dr. Seuss and Social Stratificaton
“When the Star-Belly children went out to play ball,
Could a Plain Belly get in the game? Not at all.
You only could play if your bellies had stars
And the Plain-Belly children had none upon thars.”
-The Sneetches and other Stories
The “Sneetches And Other Stories” by Dr.
Seuss is a story about two groups of
“sneetches”. One group has stars on their
bellies, and the other doesn’t. The starbellied sneetches are looked at as
superior to the inferior plain-bellied
sneetches, and as a result of this, plainbellies are shunned from picnics, parties,
and events that star-bellies regularly
attend. However having a star or not has
no technical advantage, so should they
stratify their society as such?
In the beginning of the book, the author
says "All animals are created equal.”
 In the end of the book, the author says “All animals are
created equal but some are more equal than others.”
 The pigs take over the classless barnyard and make it
their own, with their rules.
› They mock the tendency of humans to form ranks.


They write their rules against humans
›
“Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed. No animal shall drink alcohol.”
Whoever goes against it is outlawed from the group, and
seen as inferior to the rest of the group.

›
The pigs are seen as superior and never seem to make mistakes
and can bend the rules themselves.


Ranking of people or groups according to their
unequal access to scarce resources.
Most important resources are:
Income
 Wealth
 Power
 Prestige

What is social stratification?
●
A hierarchy of relative privilege based on power,
income,wealth, and prestige
Lots of power,
property, and prestige
Some power, property,
and prestige
Very little power, property,
or prestige.
Social Class
Max Weber argued that class was a combination of
property, prestige, and power.
●Is this a better way of thinking about social class?
●Why do you need all three in order to understand social
class?
●
●
Usually, if you have one, you can get the others…
Property
Prestige
Power
Bill Gates - Property
He has property - $58 billion as of 2008
●Does he have prestige?
●
●
Just spoke at TED
What about power?
●
Prestige
Property
Power
Bill Clinton - Power
He had power as president
●Does he have property?
●
Made $35,000 per year as governor of Arkansas prior to running for president
●Standard speaking fee today - $150,000; makes around $10 million per year
●
What about prestige?
●
Prestige
Power
Property
Michael Phelps - Prestige
Gained prestige as an Olympic athlete
●Does he have property?
●
Makes millions via endorsements
●Net worth is somewhere around $6-$10 million
●His contract with Speedo, which has been extended through 2009, is estimated to be
worth about $9 million.
●
What about power?
●
Property
Prestige
Power
Consequences of Social Class
●
Does social class matter?
●
●
●
How?
Physical Health
●
Poorer are less likely to have health insurance (Brian)
●
This reduces access to healthcare
●
Reduces life expectancy
●
Also tend to have poorer eating and exercising habits
Mental Health
●
●
Greater stresses in life translate into worse mental
health
Poorer classes have worse mental health than
wealthier classes
Consequences of Social Class
●
Family Life
●
●
●
Choices of husbands and wives is particularly
important
–
Prestige, respect, and tradition matter
–
This also helps maintain money among the moneyed
Divorce
–
Higher odds of divorce among the poorer classes
–
Result of stresses
Child Rearing
–
Talked about different socialization – working class push
obedience; upper classes push creativity
Consequences of Social Class
●
●
●
●
●
How does class affect education?
How are primary and secondary education
funded in the U.S.?
What significance does this have for
educational attainment and quality of
education?
What about college and graduate school? How
are they funded?
What significance does this have for
educational attainment and quality of
The Runner Example
Student in wealthy district has a
head start
If equally skilled, the student
in the poorer district never
catches up
So, is the educational system in the US fair?
To catch up, the only option
available to the poorer student
is to run faster
Consequences of Social Class
●
Religion
●
●
●
Some connection to class, but diminishing – we’ll talk more about
this later
For now, just note that more conservative religious groups (e.g.,
Pentecostals, Baptists) tend to attract people from lower
classes…
Politics
●
●
Higher social classes tend to vote conservative and Republican –
Why?
Intriguing interaction – more conservative religious groups tend to
attract lower socioeconomic classes, who then vote
conservatively
–
Why is this not in their best interest?
–
Why do they do it?
Consequences of Social Class
●
Crime and the Judicial System
●
●
The lower your social class, the higher your odds of
being arrested for a crime
Social Class and the Changing Economy
●
Does globalization – the spreading of a global
culture and the development of a world economy –
equally affect the different classes?
●
Why/Why not?
●
Who are the lower classes competing with for jobs?
●
What does this do to their wages?
●
Increasingly it isn’t the lower classes competing…
Income
•Th amount of money or its equivalent received
during a period of time in exchange for labor or
services, from the sale of goods or property, or as
profit from financial investments.
Wealth -The greater amount of money or the valuable items
possessed by an individual or group
.
POWER
•Definition:
the ability to
control the behavior of others,
even against their will
•Can be given( through
elections for example) and/or
inherited (monarchy system)
•There is some form of power
in every society
•Those in power often use
corrupt ways to push their
policies and beliefs
Prestige
• 1. reputation or
influence arising from
success,
achievement, rank,
or other favorable
attributes.
• 2. distinction or
reputation attaching
to a person or thing
and thus possessing
a cachet for others or
for the public:
An Example: The system, run by the
Jordanian king himself, enjoys an
unlikely prestige.
Why does Social Stratification
Happen ?Structural Functionalism
●
Why is social stratification “universal”?
●
Davis and Moore’s Explanation
●
Society must make sure all necessary positions are filled (e.g., garbage collector)
●
Some positions are more important than others
–
●
More important positions are filled by more qualified people
–
●
Again, is this true? And, what is meant by “qualified”?
To motivate qualified people, they must be rewarded
–
●
Is this true?
Is this true? Evidence from Soviet Union
Tumin’s Critique of Davis and Moore
●
How do we know which positions are most important?
●
Stratification should lead to an actual meritocracy
●
Stratification should to benefit everyone
●
Do we need stratification?
WHAT IS IT?

It explains that social, political, and material
inequality exists because some people are willing
to exploit others
Inequal people
SOCIAL CLASS IN AMERICA
 Social class is a controversial issue in the United States, having many
competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence.
Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes the "rich",
the "middle class", and the "poor". More complex models that have been
proposed describe as many as a dozen class levels; while still others deny the
very existence, in the strict sense, of "social class" in American society. Most
definitions of class structure group people according to wealth, income,
education, type of occupation, and membership in a specific subculture or
social network.
Functionalist Theory Of
Stratification
It recognizes that some
jobs are more important
than others, and that
these jobs often require
special training or special
talents. Usually the more
qualified people fill the
most important positions.




Only 1 percent population.
The top is “aristocracy” Represents the oldmoney families whose names appear in high
society.
For membership its most elite in blood rather
than sweat and tears.
Seldom marry outside their class.
The rich is talking about how
the poor man is nothing in
society.
Lower Upper Class- New Money
• This is the bottom end of the upper class.
• Most people in the lower upper class have gotten
there wealth from some type of athletic or
business achievement. Being born into or
inheriting wealth is not as common.
• Certain jobs such as doctors, lawyers and
business men can also be categorized in this
class.
• An average income for the lower upper class
would be $100,000 and up.
Working-Poor Class
According to the US Census Bureau, in 2010,
21 million people lived in working-poor
families.
9.6 percent of all American families living
below 100 percent of poverty have at least
one family member working .
Truck drivers unload trucks or small part time
jobs.


The working class (sometimes called "proletariat")
consists of all people who must work for someone else
in order to make money with which to survive. This
includes factory workers, maintenance people,
programmers, cooks, dishwashers, secretaries, firemen,
etc.
Usually work long hours for enough money to get by

Essentially, members of the working class work
in unskilled or semiskilled professions for
wages which are typically low. Typically,
working class work environments are
distinguished by very rigid schedules with
penalties for workers who run late or slack on
the job, and they are often organized in a very
hierarchical way, with a clear delineation
between workers, managers, and employers.
The term also includes dependent family
members of someone working in such an
industry.
Underclass





Underclass are people, typically unemployed, who came from
families that have been poor for generations.
They lack an education and skills
Many are single mothers with little to no income
Some underclass people work in part-time mental jobs
(unloading trucks, picking up litter, etc.), in addition physical
and mental disabilities are common.
There are many routes to this class- birth, old age, loss of a
marriage, lack of education, alcoholism, physical or mental
disabilities, however, there are very few paths out.
Absolute Poverty
- The absence of enough money to secure life’s
necessities like enough food, a place to live,
clothing, etc.
- Receive the minimum amount of income.
- Poverty is measured in an annual income
level.
- People below the average income level are
considered as “absolute poverty”
Jasmine Hoff

A relative measure of poverty is essentially a
measure of inequality in the lower half of the
income distribution.

A nation’s relative poverty rate is determined
largely by three things: wage inequality among
individuals in the bottom half of the
distribution, employment inequality among
households in the bottom half, and the
generosity of the public safety net.

Relative poverty measurements can sometimes
produce odd results, especially in small
populations
Poverty Cycle
 Endless continuation of poverty.
 Once a person or community falls below a
certain level of resourcefulness, a chain of
events starts to occur that tends to
perpetuate the situation
Leading to lack of employment
opportunities.
 Effects (Snowball Effect) Leads to criminal activity (such as sale of
illegal drugs) for survival, leading to
addiction, shattered health, early death,
and breakup of family, leading to even
bleaker future for the next generation ...
and so on. This cycle continues until
someone intervenes by providing
worthwhile means (not handouts) for
people to climb out of destitution, and by
ensuring children's health and education.
See also poverty trap.
•
•
•
•
•
Refer to horizontal mobility
Denotes movement from one position to another
Within same social level
Change jobs without altering occupational status
Movement of individuals, families, groups through system of social hierarchy, stratification =
American Culture
Percent of Population Living on
Less than $1 per day - 2006
Horatio Alger
• Influential writer who used his rags to
respectability formula for many books that
gave credence to the American dream.
Examples of social inequalities
 Education: who has access to the best education




possible
Health care: who gets the newest medicines and
attention
Jobs: who has the best opportunities for the best jobs
Technologies: who has access to the newest devices to
help in everyday life
Home ownership: who is able to own or rent a place to
live
In 1996 5.1 million families were
on welfare by 2004 the amount of
families dropped to less than 2
million.
63% of welfare receiving mothers
got a job within 3 years of welfare
reform.
Former welfare recipiants
averaged $8 dollars an hour wages
which means many received over
minimum wage.
Welfare Reform
The process of reforming the framework of social security and welfare provisions
What is the nature of Welfare
Reform?
• 23% social security, 19% national defense,
12% Medicare, 11% Net Interest, 6% other
means tested entitlements, 7% Medicaid, 6%
Other Mandatory
• Benefits to children of unwed teenage
mothers are denied unless mother remains in
school and lives with adult
• Cash aid to able bodied adults will be
terminated if they fail to get job after 2 years
1 Example of a wealthy American who pays little taxes
•Warren Buffett
•One of America’s wealthiest men
•Upper 1%
•Only pays 11% tax
•Favors paying higher tax with Obama tax cuts
•Secretary currently pays more tax than him
Description
 An Open Class System is the stratification that facilitates social
mobility, with individual achievement and personal merit determining
social rank.
 The hierarchical social status of a person is achieved through their
effort. Any status that is based on family background, ethnicity, gender,
and religion, which is also known as ascribed status, becomes less
important.
 There is no distinct line between the classes and there would be more
positions within that status. Core industrial nations seem to have more
of an ideal open class system.
Vertical Mobility
Vertical Mobility
 When a person’s
occupational status
or social class
moves upward or
downward
 Example of
upward: a cubical
workers becomes a
CEO
 Example of
downward: a
Doctor becomes
unemployed
• In many societies, norms about clothing
reflect standards of modesty, religion, gender,
and social status. Clothing may also function
as a form of adornment and an expression of
personal taste or style.
Muslim men
traditionally
wear white
robes and a
cap during
prayers
• In some societies, clothing may be used to
indicate rank or status.
• In ancient Rome, for example, only senators
were permitted to wear garments dyed with
Tyrian purple.
Who uses this class structure?
 East Asian countries such as:
South Korea
2. Japan
3. Taiwan
1.
2010 Poverty Thresholds,
Selected Family Types
Under 65
$
years
11,344
Single
Individual 65 years &
$
older
10,458
$
One child
15,030
Single
Parent
Two
$
children
17,568
$
No children
14,602
$
One child
17,552
Two
Adults
Two
$
children
22,113
Three
$
children
26,023




Intergenerational Mobility for any individual is primarily
determined by two factors. One factor is the amount of
opportunity in society. Another is the rate of economic growth
associated change in occupational structure.
Opportunity is defined as a degree to which income and social
status are determined by the innate skills and ambitions of the
individual and not inherited advantages and disadvantages.
The more closely a person’s socioeconomic status is determined
by parent’s status, the less opportunity exists
The more independent the two parents are, the more opportunity
is present. Children with equal abilities will have equal chances to
succeed.
The United States determines the official
poverty rate using poverty thresholds that
are issued each year by the Census Bureau.
The thresholds represent the annual amount
of cash income minimally required to
support families of various sizes.
 The methodology for calculating the
thresholds was established in the mid-1960s
and has not changed in the intervening
years. The thresholds are updated annually
to account for inflation.[



In the late 1950s, the poverty rate for all Americans
was 22.4 percent, or 39.5 million individuals. These
numbers declined steadily throughout the 1960s,
reaching a low of 11.1 percent, or 22.9 million
individuals, in 1973. Over the next decade, the
poverty rate fluctuated between 11.1 and 12.6
percent, but it began to rise steadily again in 1980. By
1983, the number of poor individuals had risen to 35.3
million individuals, or 15.2 percent.
For the next ten years, the poverty rate remained
above 12.8 percent, increasing to 15.1 percent, or
39.3 million individuals, by 1993. The rate declined for
the remainder of the decade, to 11.3 percent by
2000. From 2000 to 2004 it rose each year to 12.7 in
2004.
Statistics
• In 2010, 46.2 million people were in poverty, up from 43.6
million in 2009—the fourth consecutive annual increase in the
number of people in poverty.
• The poverty rate in 2010 (15.1 percent) was the highest
poverty rate since 1993 but was 7.3 percentage points lower
than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty
estimates are available.
• Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for nonHispanic Whites (from 9.4 percent to 9.9 percent), for Blacks
(from 25.8 percent to 27.4 percent), and for Hispanics (from
25.3 percent to 26.6 percent). For Asians, the 2010 poverty
rate (12.1 percent) was not statistically different from the
2009 poverty rate
Cont.
• The number of people in poverty in 2010 (46.2 million) is the
largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates
have been published.
• Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for
children under age 18 (from 20.7 percent to 22.0 percent) and
people aged 18 to 64 (from 12.9 percent to 13.7 percent), but
was not statistically different for people aged 65 and older
(9.0 percent).
• The official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent — up from
14.3 percent in 2009. This was the third consecutive annual
increase in the poverty rate. Since 2007, the poverty rate has
increased by 2.6 percentage points, from 12.5 percent to 15.1
percent.

In 1964, President
Lyndon B. Johnson’s
“War on Poverty”
expands the
government’s role
in providing
housing, education,
and health care to
the poor.

The Indian caste system
is a system of social
stratification and social
restriction in India in
which communities are
defined by thousands of
endogamous hereditary
groups called Jātis.
The untouchables were the outcastes, or people beyond the caste
system. Their jobs or habits involved “polluting activities”
including:
-Any job that involved ending a life, such as fishing.
-Killing or disposing of dead cattle or working with their hides.
-Any contact with human emissions such as sweat, urine, or feces.
This included occupational groups such as sweepers and washer
men.
-People who ate meat. This category included most of the primitive
Indian hill tribes.
Untouchables were often forbidden to enter temples, schools and
wells where higher castes drew water. In some parts of southern
Age and Social Class
•9.1% of people 55 and over are below poverty; the other 90.9%
are at or above.
•27% of children 18 and under suffer from poverty.
•18% of adults 19-64 suffer from poverty.
•Older people have always been wealthier than the young.
Older people have been racing ahead, helped by government
retirement benefits. Young people are running in place, partly
because they're delaying careers to get more education.
•Ages 55-59: Median income rose 52% in the last 15 years.
•Ages 35-39: Median household net worth fell 28% to $48,940.
Median income fell 10%.
Systems of Social Stratification –
Caste System
●
●
Status in the social hierarchy is determined by
birth; generally life-long
India’s Religious Castes
●
Brahman – priests and teachers
●
Kshatriya – rulers and soldiers
●
Vaishya – Merchants and traders
●
Shudra – Peasants and laborers
●
●
Dalit – outcastes; degrading laborers (clean up
waste)
Abolished in 1949, but still continues at some
Psychological cost of downward mobility
• The consequences are
enormous for people in a
society that measures selfworth by occupational
status. Downwardly mobile
people experience lowered
self-esteem, despair,
depression, feelings of
powerlessness, and a loss of
a sense of honor.
Capitalism and Stratification
●
●
Does capitalism lead to stratification?
What checks and balances do we have on
capitalism in the U.S.?
●
●
Regulation, anti-monopolization legislation
Why does capitalism seem to be winning
around the world?
●
●
●
Capitalism leads to competition
Competition (think evolution) leads to change,
generally toward more advanced technologies
Competition gives capitalist countries the edge over
How do elites maintain
stratification?
●
Do elites try to maintain stratification systems?
●
Why would they?
●
How do they do it?
●
Ideologies and Force
●
Religion?
–
●
Eternal life
Media?
–
Hugo Chaves in U.S. media
–
Who owns the media companies in the U.S.?
●
NBC – owned by GE; CBS – was owned by Westinghouse, now
by National Amusements, Inc.; ABC – Walt Disney company; Fox
Social Mobility
●
●
Refers to changes in class - generally changes
between one generation and the next
Does this happen?
●
●
●
1/3 of children end up in the same social class as
their parents (that means going up and down)
Correlation of .4 between incomes of parents and
incomes of children
NOTE: The U.S. – the alleged land of “rags to
riches” – has less social mobility than many
other developed countries (except the U.K.).
What is poverty?
●
What does it mean to be poor?
●
Relative poverty
–
●
Absolute poverty
–
●
A sense of relative deprivation – you feel like you have
less than others
You cannot afford the basic necessities of life
The U.S. government draws a line for poverty in
the U.S…
Myths about the poor
●
Most are lazy
●
Half are too old or young to work
●
What about the other half?
●
●
Poor are trapped and few escape
●
●
For most, poverty (by federal definition) is short-lived
Most are Latino and African-American
●
●
30% work part time; many others don’t make enough
working
Disproportionate percentage, but most are white
Most are single mothers and kids
Culture of Poverty
●
●
●
●
Are the poor just a bunch
of welfare mothers who
abuse the system?
Very few fit that
stereotype…
Most want to work
We should be asking a
different question: Why
aren’t there enough jobs?
Why are people poor?
●
Features of society deny opportunity to certain
groups
●
●
●
Education, social mobility, job market, selfishness,
etc.
Unemployment is a necessary component of
capitalism
We even punish and penalize the poor
–
Welfare reform in the mid 1990s limited time on welfare
●
Are all the poor “undeserving”?
●
Is there such a thing as “deserving” poor?
Poverty – final thoughts
●
●
Cultural element – Delayed gratification
●
Why is this important for poverty?
●
How is this important?
●
Who (which social class) teaches it to offspring?
Is America the land of dreams, where anyone
can go from “rags to riches”, like Horatio Alger
claimed?
●
How exactly would that work?
●
We can’t all exploit someone…
• Jains and Muslim men wear unstitched cloth
pieces when performing religious ceremonies.
The unstitched cloth signifies unified and
complete devotion to the task at hand, with
no digression.
WHAT IS THE AMERICAN DREAM?



The American Dream is the
traditional social ideals of the
US, such as equality,
democracy, and material
prosperity.
The ideals of freedom,
equality, and opportunity
traditionally held to be
available to every American.
A life of personal happiness
and material comfort as
traditionally sought by
individuals in the U.S.
DYING DREAM CONTINUED

James Truslow Adams, published a definition
of the American Dream, describes it as "a
dream of a social order in which each man and
each woman should be able to attain to the
fullest stature of which they are innately
capable, and be recognized by others for what
they are, regardless of the fortuitous
circumstances of birth or position."
 ABC News put out a poll showing that 62 percent
of Americans are spending less on things like
vacations, cars, and dining out.
○ Americans don’t want the high expensive items
anymore, they feel like it would be best to back track to
a more less appeal.
IS THE AMERICAN DREAM DYING?
American dream of success, fame and wealth
through thrift and hard work. However, the
industrialization began to erode the dream, replacing
it with a philosophy of "get rich quick".
 Graph: The debt of school loans, car insurance,
taxes, marriage, and home insurance is not enough
to sustain
that throughout the years.
 Too much spending, too expensive
for America, having whatever we
want is not appealing anymore.
We want something that won’t bring
us to spending our hard work.

HOW DID WE GET TO THE DECREASE OF
THE “DREAM”?
Americans are struggling—squeezed by
rising costs, declining wages, credit-card
debt and diminished benefits, with little left
over to save for retirement.
 America’s money is increasing. We spend
more as it increases throughout the years.

 Too much spending has brought
the Americans to not want to
spend as much money so they
can look to the future of a better
life for them and their families.
HOW IS THE “DREAM” TODAY?

5.9 million Americans
ages 25 to 34 are living
with their parents.
 Men are now twice as
likely as young women to
live with their parents.

There's not just one
American Dream, but a
multitude of American
Dreams which a
multitude of people are
working toward.
BARRIERS TO THE AMERICAN DREAM

Government as Help or Hindrance:
 72% of Americans believe that the
government should actively work to
help people achieve the American
Dream.
 45% believe the government has
done more to hinder their pursuit
of the American Dream than help.
 85% say that local, state and
federal government must work
together to give people a fair shot
at achieving the American Dream.

Two-thirds of the American people say the American
Dream is becoming harder to achieve, especially for
young families.
THE “DREAM” IN REAL LIFE
The earn, spend, earn era has come to
an end for us," Patrick Wojtowicz says. "The
idea of living a fuller, more satisfying life
seems simple to us now. … Money, cash,
credit, maybe they don't matter. Maybe, just
maybe, it is those things that impede our
ability to be truly happy…”

 People like Patrick see that what we earn should
be used cautiously and not spend once we get
the check. We shouldn’t splurge on what we
think is a necessary product.
WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE IN THE FUTURE?

“…fewer facelifts…less Botox, less dyed
hair…They will look more like people used
to look, before perfection came in. Middleaged bodies will be thicker and softer…The
new home fashion will be spare: the good,
frayed carpet; dogs that look like dogs and
not a hairdo in a teacup..."
 America is retreating to what we used to have
before everyone wanted to be perfected.
WHAT IS THE AMERICAN DREAM TO YOU?

http://projects.usatoday.com/news/voice
s/what-is-the-american-dream
 This video shows what people in
Washington, D.C. think the American Dream
is to them.
○ We all have different perspectives on what it
means to us and how we should live it.
○ Many people had a different answer,
asked people of all different ages,
and of different ethnicities, and
probably different success rates.