Lesson 8: Social Class and
Inequality
Robert Wonser
Introduction to Sociology
Lesson Outline
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Understanding Social Stratification
Social stratification and inequality
Systems of stratification
Social classes in the United States
Theories of Social Class
Socioeconomic status and life chances
Social mobility
Defining poverty
Inequality and the ideology of the American
Dream
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Class and Inequality
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Understanding Inequality
 Inequality is the unequal access to
scarce goods or resources.
 It is found in most, if not all, societies.
 It is a question of how unequal a society
is.
 How unequal is the United States?
 Can it be seen from space?
Introduction to Sociology: Social
Class and Inequality
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International Comparison of Poverty
Rates among Wealthy Countries
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Class and Inequality
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Understanding Social Stratification
Social stratification is the division of society
into groups arranged in a social hierarchy
based on access to wealth, power and
prestige. Ex: slavery, caste and social class
Where people rank in stratification system
influences every part of their lives in
profound ways.
 What food they eat, where they shop, clothes
they wear, schools they attend, income they
earn, how long (and quality of life) they live,
occupation.
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Class and Inequality
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Social Stratification
 Every society has some form of social
stratification, but societies group people on
different criteria (such as race, class, and
gender).
 Social stratification is a characteristic of
society; it persists over generations, and it is
maintained through beliefs (and ideologies)
that are widely shared by members of society.
 By definition inequality is unequal; this
contradicts basic American values.
 How are we ok with some having more than
others?
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Class and Inequality
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Systems of Stratification (Cont’d)
 Social class refers to a system of
stratification based on access to
resources such as wealth, property,
power, education and prestige.
 Sociologists often refer to it as
socioeconomic status (or SES).
 By the way, what’s the difference
between income and wealth?
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Class and Inequality
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Social Classes in the United States
 The upper class (capitalist class):
 Wealthiest people in a class system
 Make up about 1% of the U.S. population
 Possess most of the wealth of the
country
 The ratio of CEO pay to factory worker pay rose
from 42:1 in 1960 to as high as 531:1 in 2000,
at the height of the stock market bubble.
 It was at 411:1 in 2005 and 344:1 in 2007,
according to research by United for a Fair
Economy.
 By way of comparison, the same ratio is about
25:1 in Europe.
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Class and Inequality
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Social Classes in the United States
 The upper-middle class:
 Professionals and managers
 Make up about 14% of the U.S.
population
 Benefited the most from college
 The middle class consists primarily of
 “White collar” workers
 Have a broad range of incomes
 Make up about 30% of the U.S.
population
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Class and Inequality
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Social Classes in the United States
 The working (lower-middle) class:
 “Blue-collar” or service industry
workers
 Less likely to have college degrees
 Make up about 30% of the U.S.
population
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Class and Inequality
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Social Classes in the United States
 The lower class (the working
poor):
 Many poor people who typically
have lower levels of literacy than
other classes
 Make up about 20% of the U.S.
population
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Class and Inequality
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Class and Inequality
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CEOs' average pay, production workers' average
pay, the S&P 500 Index, corporate profits, and
the federal minimum wage, 1990-2005 (all
figures adjusted for inflation)
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Class and Inequality
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Distribution of income in the
United States, 1982-2006
Top 1 percent
Next 19 percent
Bottom 80
percent
1982
12.80%
39.10%
48.10%
1988
16.60%
38.90%
44.50%
1991
15.70%
40.70%
43.70%
1994
14.40%
40.80%
44.90%
1997
16.60%
39.60%
43.80%
2000
20.00%
38.70%
41.40%
2003
17.00%
40.80%
42.20%
2006
21.30%
40.10%
38.60%
From Wolff (2010).
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Class and Inequality
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How unequal are we?
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Class and Inequality
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Distribution of Net Worth (assets –
liabilities), 2001
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Class and Inequality
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How unequal are we?
 The top-earning 20 percent of Americans -those making more than $100,000 each
year -- received 49.4 percent of all income
generated in the U.S., compared with the
3.4 percent made by the bottom 20 percent
of earners, those who fell below the
poverty line, according to the new figures
(late 2010).
 That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase
from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low
of 7.69 in 1968.
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Class and Inequality
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 At the top, the wealthiest 5 percent of
Americans, who earn more than
$180,000, added slightly to their
annual incomes last year.
 Families at the $50,000 median level
slipped lower.
 Lower-skilled adults ages 18 to 34
had the largest jumps in poverty last
year.
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Class and Inequality
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Americans Vastly Underestimate
Wealth Inequality
 A recent report shows across
ideological, economic and gender
groups, Americans thought the
richest 20% of our society controlled
about 59 percent of the wealth, while
the real number is closer to 84%.
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Class and Inequality
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Americans Vastly Underestimate
Wealth Inequality
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Class and Inequality
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Theories of Social Class
 Karl Marx believed that there were two
main social classes in capitalist societies:
 Capitalists (or bourgeoisie), who owned
the means of production
 Workers (or proletariat), who sold their
labor for wages
 He believed that the classes would remain
divided and social inequality would grow.
 Has social inequality grown?
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Class and Inequality
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Theories of Social Class
 Max Weber offered a similar model
that also included cultural factors.
 He argued that class status was made
of three components:
 Wealth (or Privilege, inherited
assets)
 Power
 Prestige
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Class and Inequality
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Class and Inequality
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What does your living
room/neighborhood say about you?
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Class and Inequality
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Theories of Social Class
 More recently, Pierre Bourdieu argued
each generation acquires cultural capital
(tastes, habits, expectations, skills,
knowledge, etc.) that help us to gain
advantages in society
 This cultural capital either helps or
hinders us as we become adults.
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Class and Inequality
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Lareau’s “concerted cultivation’
and ‘natural growth’
 How does social reproduction (tendency for social
classes to remain stable across generations) occur?
 Research indicates class more important than race
and that child-rearing practices reproduce class-based
advantages
 Concerted cultivation – involves high levels of
extracurricular activities (which prepare children for
success in the middle class adult world, but requires
time and money, usually by mom)
 Accomplishment of natural growth - which
emphasizes loving children and providing for them
and giving children much more leisure time that is
self-directed and unstructured.
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Class and Inequality
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Concerted Cultivation
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Class and Inequality
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Theories of Social Class
 Symbolic Interactionists examine
the way we use status differences to
categorize ourselves and others.
 As Erving Goffman pointed out, our
clothing, speech, gestures,
possessions, friends, and activities
provide information about our
socioeconomic status.
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Class and Inequality
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Class and Inequality
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Socioeconomic Status and Life
Chances
 Belonging to a certain social class has
profound consequences for individuals
in all areas of life including:
 Education
 Employment
 medical care
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Class and Inequality
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Brain and Lung Cancer Statistics
What’s different about how one gets which type of
cancer?
Lung cancer is strongly impacted by health behaviors
whereas brain cancer is generally viewed as less
predictable or preventable
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Class and Inequality
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Social Mobility
 Social mobility is the movement of
individuals or groups within the hierarchal
system of social classes.
 America technically has an open system (it
is legal and permissible for people to move
between classes) but there are structural
patterns where people tend to stay very
close to the class they were raised in.
 If we have an open system, why do we see
a lack of opportunities to move between
classes?
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Class and Inequality
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Poverty
 In the United States, the federal poverty
line (an absolute measure of annual
income) is frequently used to determine
who should be categorized as poor.
 In 2005, about 37 million people (12.6% of
the population) in the United States were
considered poor.
 Recent estimates show this is now about 14% of
the population; and the pop is larger now than
in 2005.
 Why are we so unaware of the poor?
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Class and Inequality
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Number of Poverty and Poverty
Rate, 1959-2007
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Class and Inequality
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Poverty
 The culture of poverty refers to
learned attitudes that can develop
among poor communities and lead
the poor to accept their fate rather
than attempt to improve their
situation.
 What is missing from this theory?
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Class and Inequality
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Inequality and the Ideology of the
American Dream
 The ideology of the
American Dream (that
anyone can achieve material
success if they work hard
enough) explains and
justifies our social system,
but it has been criticized for
legitimizing stratification by
telling us that everyone has
the same opportunity to get
ahead.
Introduction to Sociology: Social
Class and Inequality
This Alger novel features
a newsboy who rises to
Newspaper editor. Are
most Americans today
likely
to achieve upward
mobility?
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The Problem with the American
Dream
 It is predicated on a “meritocracy”
(that hard work is justly rewarded).
 This notion tells us that success or
failure depends on the person, when
in reality we know that there are
structural advantages and
disadvantages that also contribute to
an individual’s success or failure.
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Class and Inequality
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Lesson Quiz
 True or False:
1. Every society has some form of
stratification.
 a. True
 b. False
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Class and Inequality
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Lesson Quiz
 2. The tendency of social classes to
remain relatively stable as social class
status is passed down from one
generation to the next is called:
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a. cultural capital.
b. social prestige.
c. social reproduction.
d. class consciousness.
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Class and Inequality
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Lesson Quiz
 3. Entrenched attitudes that can
develop among poor communities and
lead the poor to accept their fate is
called:
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a. the culture of poverty.
b. the just-world hypothesis.
c. disenfranchisement.
d. social welfare.
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Class and Inequality
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Lesson Quiz
 4. Max Weber argued that there
were several important components
of social class. Which of the following
is NOT one of the components?
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a. Prestige
b. Power
c. Wealth
d. Morals
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Class and Inequality
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Take Away Points:
 Inequality is intentional; moreover it
is rising. The U.S. now has higher
rates of inequality and poverty than
other industrialized countries.
 It is legitimated by the ideology of
meritocracy and the American Dream.
 Social class profoundly effects every
facet of your life.
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Class and Inequality
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For Next Time:
 Another status we are stratified by:
race and ethnicity (also social
constructions!)
 Be sure to Read! (check your syllabus
for assigned readings!)
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Class and Inequality
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