Download File - Yesenia King

Social Class: The
Structure of Inequality
Ch. 7
I began to see a trend of articles like this one around the recession and shortly after. Ask yourself,
why do people play the lotto? What kind of people play the lotto (do rich billionaires play it for
example, or working/poor classes? Think critically - if there is a spike in sales of lotto tickets, what
does that say about the economy, about society, about people? Desperate? Hopeful?
Social Stratification
• Social Stratification – the division of society into
groups arranged in a social hierarchy.
• System in which large groups of people are divided into
layers according to their relative power, property, and
prestige
• Exists within society
• Affects our life chances and orientations to life based on
our class
• Unequal and relatively permanent
• Social inequality – the unequal distribution of
wealth, power, or prestige among members of a
society.
Questions for Consideration
1. What are the major social classes in the U.S.?
2. For which class is inherited wealth most
important?
3. How are one’s education and occupation
related to one’s social class?
Dimensions of Stratification
The Economic Dimension
• Marx viewed economics as the foundation of social
classes.
• Social class is determined by one’s relationship to
the means of production.
– Bourgeoisie – the rulers; exploit
– Proletariat – those who are ruled; revolt
• Classless society
• Believed that all other social institutions
were based on the economic structure
Dimensions of Stratification
The Economic Dimension
• Weber identified several different social
classes based on the consequences of their
relationship to the economic institution.
• Wealth that consists of property (what we
own) and income (money we receive).
• Likelihood of achieving education,
housing, health, food, etc., based on
access to economic resources.
Economic Inequality in America
Some interesting statistics to hopefully piss you guys off:
• “CEO Pay Jumped 11%” by Joann Lublin (WSJ)
• For the past 30 years income inequality has been increasing.
• The U.S. is now the most economically unequal of all major
Western countries.
• In 2009, 43.6 million people were living in poverty yet there
were only 7 million millionaires and 800 billionaires.
• Between 1990 and 2005 CEO income increased about
300% while workers income increased just 4.3%
Dimensions of Stratification
The Power Dimension
• Power is the ability to control others, even over
their objections.
• Expert knowledge, special skills, fame, and social
position
• Mills – “Power Elite”
– Big decision makers
in U.S. society
Dimensions of Stratification
The Prestige Dimension
• Prestige is the respect or regard people give to
various occupations and accomplishments.
• In US occupations are the primary source of prestige.
• Occupations with highest prestige:
–
–
–
–
Pay more
Require more education
Entail more abstract thought
Offer greater autonomy
• Valuable = people must acknowledge it.
Explanations of Stratification
Functionalist Theory
• Stratification is inevitable
– Positions have to be filled and some positions are more
important than others
– More important positions need to be filled by more qualified
people = greater rewards
• Critical Thinking – Where does Functionalist theory fall
short?
– Are some positions really more important?
• Example: Entertainer vs. President; Electrician vs. Professor
– Barriers to fair competition due to lack of access.
• Example: Racial/Ethnic groups, women, the disabled etc.
– Meritocracy?
• Example: Best predictor of College entrance is family income not ability
– Stratification is dysfunctional, thus not functional.
Explanations of Stratification
Conflict Theory
• Stress that conflict, not function, is the basis of
social stratification
• Stratification exists because those with more power
and wealth are willing to exploit others with less.
• Critical Thinking – Where does conflict theory fall
short?
– Conflict theory is based on the class conflict described by
Marx
– Marx’s work not consistent with American system
Symbolic Interactionism and Stratification
• 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.
• Social stratification persists only as long as its
legitimacy is accepted.
• Symbols explain the existence of stratification to the
young and the reasons for people being located in
particular strata.
• Views of legitimacy are incorporated into an
individual’s self-concept as well.
Theoretical Perspectives: Social
Stratification
Stratification in American Society
U.S. Class Structure
• Social class: a system of stratification
based on access to resources such as wealth,
property, power, and prestige.
• Sociologists often refer to social class as
socioeconomic status (or SES); based
primarily on the possession of
money and material goods
The U.S. Social Class Ladder
Consequences of Stratification
Life Chances –probability of achieving the
positive things in life.
– Life Expectancy
– Health/Mental health; medical care
Life Style
– Family Life
– Divorce
– Child Rearing
– Politics
– Education
– Criminal Justice System
Social Mobility
• Social mobility – the movement of
individuals or groups within a stratification
structure.
• Movement up or down the social class ladder
• Difficult to do.
– Minorities have been denied the opportunity for
advancement
• Significantly impacted by intergenerational
assistance.
– Upper class children = assistance from parents; less
likely to move down
– Lower class children = less likely to move up
Systems of Social Stratification - Slavery
Slavery - the most extreme form of social stratification and
is based on the legal ownership of people.
• Causes – old (debt, war, punishment for a crime) vs new
• Conditions
– Temporary
– Not Necessarily Inheritable
– Not Necessarily Powerless and Poor
• Slavery in the New World (Early America)
• Slavery Today – Modern-day slavery persists, illegally, in
many forms across the globe (ex. Human sex trafficking)
Caste Stratification System
• In a caste system
Ex. India’s Religion Caste
– there is no social mobility
– social status is inherited
– statuses are ascribed or
assigned at birth.
• Apartheid – the term for the system of segregation of racial
and ethnic groups that was legal in South Africa between 1948
and 1991
• Example – South Africa – Apartheid; US – Jim Crow Laws
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.
• The poverty threshold in 2015 for a family of
four was $24,250
• Most people living in poverty are not
unemployed. This fact is evident in the term
“working poor.”
Poverty in the United States by Selected Characteristics,
2013
Inequality & the Ideology of the
American Dream
• The American Dream:
– is the ideology that anyone can achieve material
success if he or she works hard enough
– explains and justifies economic inequality in our
social system
– has been criticized for legitimizing stratification by
implying that everyone has the same opportunity
to get ahead
Poverty (cont’d.)
• Absolute deprivation is an objective measure of poverty that is
defined by the inability to meet minimal standards for food,
shelter, clothing, or health care.
• Relative deprivation is a relational measure of poverty based on
the standards of living.
– People are considered poor if their standard of living is less than that
of other members of society.
• 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.
• Invisibility of Poverty: Residential segregation, political
disenfranchisement, and the use of law enforcement to
control the homeless can make poverty invisible to many
Americans.