Stratification systems based primarily on ______ statuses are said to be open.

--The capitalist class maintained its position by control of the society's superstructure-comprised of the government, schools, and other social institutions which produce and disseminate ideas perpetuating the existing system. (Ideology that we are doing it the way we are supposed to be doing it thus we are taught not to question it).

--No revolution, but maybe because many changes since Marx’s time:

• Today, ownership and control have largely been separated (managerial class)
• Also, rising standard of living so people feel content
•  Also, too busy to have revolution, consumed with consuming…

B. Max Weber: Wealth, Power, Prestige

--Weber's multidimensional approach to stratification focused on the interplay among wealth, power, and prestige as being necessary in determining a person's class position.  Identified additional classes to Marx’s model.

--Weber placed people who have a similar level of Wealth-the value of all of a person's or family's economic assets (including income, personal property, and income-­producing property) in the same class.

--Also looked at power and prestige.

• Power-the ability of people or groups to carry out their own goals despite opposition from others ­­ gives some people the ability to shape society in accordance with their own interests and to direct the actions of others.
• Prestige is the respect or regard with which a person or status position is regarded by others, and those who share similar levels of social prestige belong to the same status group regardless of their level of wealth.
• Wealth, prestige, and power are separate continuums on which people can be ranked from high to low; individuals may be high on one dimension while being low on another.

--Both Marx and Weber emphasized the importance of class to people’s life-chances, but saw different futures for capitalism and the social system: Overthrow  and increasing bureaucratization of life even without capitalism

Weber suggested that bureaucracies were so powerful that even a worker's revolution would not lessen social inequality.

.

IV. SOCIOLOGICAL MODELS OF THE U.S. CLASS

STRUCTURE

--Socioeconomic status (SES)

--A combined measure that attempts to classify individuals, families, or households in terms of indicators such as income, occupation, and education-is used to determine class location.

A. Weberian approach: education, occupation, family income

• Gilbert and Kahl, who are Functionalists, developed this widely used model based on Weber’s focus of ed., occup., and income.

--The Upper (or Capitalist) Class is the wealthiest and most powerful class, comprised of people who own substantial income-­producing assets (old [upper upper] and new upper [lower upper] class (come from prominent families who have access to high culture, socialized to believe they are different from the rest, children educated in prestigious, private schools and Universities).

--The Upper-Middle Class  is based on a combination of three factors: university degrees, authority, and independence on the job, and high income. Examples of occupations for this class are highly educated professionals such as physicians, stockbrokers, or corporate managers.

--Of all classes, the Upper-Middle class is most shaped by formal education.

--The Middle Class is characterized by a minimum of a high school diploma or a community college degree (medical technicians, nurses, legal and medical secretaries, lower-level managers, semiprofessionals, and non-retail sales-workers).

--American Dream is eroding for this class: increasing housing costs, occupational insecurity, little job mobility, cost of living

--Class distinctions between middle and working class are blurred due to overlapping characteristics.

The Working Class is comprised of semiskilled machine operatives, clerks and salespeople in routine, mechanized jobs, and workers in pink collar occupations-relatively low-­paying, non-manual, semiskilled positions primarily held by women (day care workers, check-out clerks, cashiers, and restaurant servers).

--Working class earn less than middle class families and have less financial security,  (lay-offs and plants closing) many have HS diploma or less, finding themselves in low-paying jobs in the service sector of the economy, like fast-food restaurants, often placing them among the working poor.

--The Working Poor live from just above to just below the poverty line; they hold unskilled jobs, seasonal migrant employment in agriculture, lower-­paid factory jobs, and service jobs (e.g., such as counter help at restaurants).

--Employed single mothers often belong to this class, thus the kids are over represented here.

--Also African-Americans and other racial-ethnic minority groups are over represented here.

--These classes have no economic security, in case of emergencies of what have you…

--The Underclass includes people who are poor, seldom employed, and caught in long term deprivation.

--Results from low levels of education and income and high rates of unemployment.

• Also disabilities and discrimination
• single mothers are here, too ‘cause of lack of jobs, affordable child care, etc.

--Meaningful employment opportunities are important for this class, job creation is needed for decent wage, medical coverage, and to live meaningful and productive lives, and raise kids in safe environment (all tied to The American Dream).

B. Marxian approach: based on ownership of the

means of production.

1. Erik Olin Wright

--Erik Olin Wright outlined four criteria for placement in the class structure:

• ownership of the means of production;
• purchase of the labor of others (employing others);
• control of the labor of others (supervising others on the job); and
• sale of one's own labor (being employed by someone else).
• According to Wright, basic class location- positions in the class structure where issues of property ownership and control are relatively clear- is determined by factors of ownership and authority.
• Contradictory class location refers to positions within the productive process that possess a combination of elements from two different basic class locations.

--Conflict Model of the Class Structure:

• The Capitalist Class is composed of those who have inherited fortunes, own major corporations, or are top corporate executives who own extensive amounts of stock or control company investments. They control the means of production.
• Men who made Forbes list gained fortunes through entrepreneurship of being CEOs of large corporations
• Women acquired wealth through inheritance, marriage, or both:
• Only 5 women have headed major corporations over the past decade, and most of those headed up family-owned business enterprises.
• The Managerial Class includes upper-­level managers -supervisors and professionals who typically do not participate in company wide decisions, and lower-­level managers who may be given some control over employment practices, such as the hiring and firing of some workers.
• Top professionals (physicians, attorneys, accountants, engineers)—all control the structure of their own work but typically do not own the means of production. 

--Capitalist class depends on Managerial Class’s specialized knowledge.

--Members of the managerial class occupy a contradictory class location between the capitalist and working classes:

• Don’t own the means of production, and usually earn a regular salary, like working class. 
• BUT typically have control over the work of others and authority over production, like capitalists.
• But tend to align themselves with the basic interests of the capitalist class (high income)
• Few people of color and white women here

• The Small-Business Class consists of small business owners, craftspeople, and some doctors and lawyers who may hire a small number of employees but largely do their own work.
• American Dream is big here:  People desire this as part of the Dream, but roughly 5% of US pop is in the small-business class.
• The Working Class (about half of all employees in the US) is made up of:
• blue-­collar workers, including skilled workers (e.g., electricians, plumbers, and carpenters),
• unskilled blue-­collar workers (e.g., laundry and restaurant workers),
• and white-­collar workers (Secretaries, other clerical worker, and sales workers).
• do not own the means of production,
• do not control the work of others,
• and are relatively powerless in the workplace.
• Take orders from others and under constant supervision, putting them at bottom of structure in terms of domination and control in the workplace.

--Both Marxian and Weberian models of the US class structure show differences in people’s occupations and access to valued resources, neither fully reflects the nature and extent of inequality in the US.

--Next section shows how poverty affects life-chances of people.

V. INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES

A. Income and wealth are very unevenly distributed in

the United States.

--Income is the economic gain derived from wages, salaries, income transfers (governmental aid such as AFDC), or ownership of property.

• Gulf between the rich and the poor continues to increase: Rich are getting richer, poor more likely to stay poor.

• Income distribution varies by race/ethnicity, as well as class:
• Over half of African-Americans (61.5%) and Latino/a (63.3%) households fall within the lowest 2 income categories
• Slightly 1/3 of whites (37.8%)

--Wealth includes not only income but also property such as buildings, land, farms, houses, factories, cars, and other assets.

• Wealth is computed by subtracting all debt obligations and converting the remaining assets into cash.

• For most people, wealth is invested primarily in property that generates no income, like homes and cars, versus the wealth of an elite minority in the form of income-producing property.

--For upper class, wealth often comes from inheritance

--Differences in wealth:

• --The net wealth of the average white household is 14x’s that of the average black household.
• –44% of whites had assets of $50,000 or more and only 13% of blacks were in this category
• –Married couples have higher net worth than unmarried
• --and households headed by 55 and older are wealthier than those headed by younger persons.

B. Consequences of Inequality

1. health and nutrition

--As people's economic status increases so does their health status:

• the poor have shorter life expectancies and are at greater risk for chronic illnesses and infectious diseases. (About 40 million people in the United States are without health insurance coverage).
• Analysts suggest that people with higher income and wealth tend to smoke less, exercise more, maintain a healthy body weight, and eat nutritious meals, also, as a category,  tend to be less depressed and face less psychological distress (related income, education, and job status)

2. education and life chance are directly linked

• Functionalists view education as an "elevator" for social mobility, leads to greater 'life chances'.
• Conflict theorists stress that schools are agencies for reproducing the capitalist class system and perpetuating inequality in society. (Different experiences).
• Education perpetuates poverty
• Distribution of educational resources isn’t equal: funding comes from local property taxes, so schools in central cities and poverty-stricken areas lose out

VI. POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES

--Although some people living in poverty are unemployed, many hardworking people with full­time jobs also live in poverty.

A. The official poverty line: based on what is considered to be the minimum amount of money required for living at a subsistence level.

• Computed by determining cost of a minimally nutritious meal (fort short-term basis) and multiplying by 3 for non-food costs.

--In 2012, over 50 million people lived below the official poverty level of $16,400 for a family of 4 (14% of population)

• absolute poverty-- when people do not have the means to secure the most basic necessities of life
• relative poverty--when people may be able to afford basic necessities but still are unable to maintain an average standard of living.

B. Who Are the Poor?

1. age: children

--Children are more likely to be poor than older persons:

• 4 out of every 10 persons below the poverty line are under eighteen
• In 2012, 37.2% of all African Americans under age 18 lived in poverty
• 36.8% of Latino/a children were also poor
• compared to 16.1 percent of non-Latino white children (1999 Census).
• Families headed by single mothers are at greater risk

--Older women are twice as likely to be poor as older men;

--Older African Americans and Latinos/as are much more likely to live below the poverty line than are non­-Latino/a whites.

2. gender: women

--About 2/3 of all adults living in poverty are women

a. the feminization of poverty

--It is the trend in which women are disproportionately represented among individuals living in poverty.

--Women are at greater risk because they typically care for children and earn between 70-80 cents for every dollar a male earns.

--But women have always been vulnerable to poverty, and some women are more vulnerable than others (upper class women may have education and skills to support themselves with or without a man.

--Poverty is everyone’s problem.

3. race and ethnicity

--White Americans (non­Latinos/as) account for approximately 2/3 of those below the official poverty line; however, a disproportionate percentage of the poverty population is made up of African Americans, Latinos/as, and Native Americans (small portion of population, so if distributed equally, should be small portion of those living in poverty).

• About 26% of African Americans and Latinos/as were among the officially poor compared with 10.5% of non-Latino whites.
• Native Americans are among the most severely  disadvantaged: about 1/3 live below the poverty line, and some live in extreme poverty (no water, sewer, electricity). 

C. Economic and Structural Sources of Poverty

1. economic source: low wages

--Half of all families living in poverty are headed by someone who is employed, and one-­third of those family heads work full time.

2. structural sources

a. deindustrialization:  millions of U.S. workers have lost jobs as corporations have disinvested here and opened facilities in other countries where "cheap labor" exists

         b. job deskilling a reduction in the proficiency needed to perform a specific job that leads to a corresponding reduction in the wages paid for that job.

--Unemployment rate for blacks is twice that of whites

D. Solving the Poverty Problem

1. social welfare programs:  Temporary assistance needed for families.

--But most (80%) who take advantage of system don’t even qualify as ‘poor’ (like many recipients of Social Security are older people in middle and upper-income categories

--Stigma involved here (lazy and unwilling to work)

--Welfare reform in 1996: established state-level workfare programs and mandatory time limits on welfare benefits (our film shows effects of that, the attempt to keep people off welfare.  But then what happens to them?  (See film ‘Take it Form Me’…)

2. lack of consensus on problem and solution

--Help the poor or help themselves?

VII. SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF SOCIAL

INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES

A. Functionalist Explanations of Social Inequality

According to the Davis-Moore thesis:

• All societies have important tasks that must be accomplished and certain positions that must be filled.
• Some positions are more important for the survival of society than others.
• The most important positions must be filled by the most qualified people.
• The positions that are the most important for society and require scarce talent, extensive training, or both, must be the most highly rewarded.
• The most highly rewarded positions should be those which are functionally unique (no other position can perform the same function), and those positions upon which others rely for expertise, direction, or financing.
• This thesis assumes that social stratification results in meritocracy- a hierarchy in which all positions are rewarded based on people's ability and credentials.

        B. Conflict Explanations of Social Inequality

• From a conflict perspective, inequality does not serve as a source of motivation for people; powerful individuals and groups use ideology to maintain their favored positions at the expense of others (The American Dream).
• Laws and informal social norms support inequality in the United States (e.g., legalized segregation and discrimination produce higher levels of economic inequality).

VIII. THE TWENTY­FIRST CENTURY AND SOCIAL

STRATIFICATION:

A.  Moving toward greater inequality

--According to some social scientists, wealth will become more concentrated at the top of the U.S. class structure; as the rich have grown richer, more people have found themselves among the ranks of the poor.

--Structural sources of upward mobility are shrinking while the rate of downward mobility has increased; the persistence of economic inequality is related to profound global economic changes.

What factor makes class systems open?

What are the 4 systems of stratification quizlet?

What is a stratification system quizlet?

Which of the following systems of social stratification is an open system meaning that social mobility is possible )?