Hello, this is the lecture first
Lecture: Social Class and Social Stratification
Wealth Distribution. One man gets half of the pie and the bottom 90% get the rest.
Introduction/Review of Terms
Social class
Social structural position that people hold relative to the economic, social, political, and cultural resources of our society.
Income:
Amount of money brought into a household from various sources during a given period.
Wealth:
Monetary value of everything one actually owns.
Net Worth:
Assets minus debts—what you own minus what you owe.
Social stratification
Relatively fixed, hierarchical arrangement in society by which groups have different access to resources, power, and perceived social worth.
Social stratification shapes life chances.
Life chances are opportunities people have in common by virtue of belonging to a particular class.
Life chances shape where you shop, your networks, access to doctors, the home you live in, etc.
When we look back at history we see that there has always been people with different amounts of income/wealth. We have those in the top and those in the bottom. However, when we look at this chart, we see that from 1947 to 1979, all income group levels grew. But, something happened after 1979!
Family Income Growth from 1947-1979
From 1979 to 2006, not all income groups grew. Those a the top saw the greatest growth in income.
Why did these economic changes take place?
The Takeoff in Income Inequality
Family Income Distribution from 1979 – 2006
The Economy since 1980_Who Benefited? Describes how CEO’s benefited the most
Check out the 10 highest-paid CEO’s in 2017 (Links to an external site.)
Here, you can see the current CEO wages. (Links to an external site.)
Median Family Wealth by Race from 1963 – 2013
When we talk about social class, we can’t just look at class as a single characteristic that shapes people’s life chances. We also need to look at how social class intersects with other social categories. In the chart above, we see the intersection of social class and race. On average, white families have more wealth than black and Hispanic/Latinx families.
Why is it that white families have more wealth, on average, than families of color?
Racism: Think of the historical legacy of racism and the impact that had on the ability for certain families (depending on their race) to accumulate wealth or not (think of how white families were able to accumulate wealth while black families were enslaved for over 200 years).
Redlining (Links to an external site.)
Median Home Values by Race
Do we really live in Meritocracy?
✤Phrases like, “rags to riches” and “pull yourself up from your bootstraps” capture the American idea that all that is needed to succeed is hard work.
✤Yes, hard work is necessary! However, the biggest predictor of future wealth and upward social mobility is the family into which you are born into. (Read this study to learn more about the impact of family on social mobility) (Links to an external site.)
The Rise in the Income Achievement Gap
People like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg serve as examples in society of people who have been able to climb the social ladder and achieve upward social mobility. And, we associate their success to hard work.
Despite these examples (and others) most people usually stay on, or close to, the social class they were born into.
Because of belief in upward social mobility, Karl Marx argues that people in the U.S. have a false (class) consciousness.
False consciousness is the class consciousness of subordinate classes who have internalized the view of the dominant class.
In other words, false consciousness alludes to the idea that the lower classes have come to believe that all that takes to succeed is hard work and nothing else (for instance, that your race, gender or discrimination have nothing to do with it)
Example of False Consciousness
(This cartoon illustrates idea of “false consciousness”—that all it takes to success is hard work and nothing else.)
Overall, you can see that there are two main perspectives on social class and upward social mobility.
One is the notion of meritocracy. This approach tends to see social class and mobility analogous to a ladder.
This gives the idea that you can move up and down different “rungs” of the ladder. All you need to move up the social class is to work hard. Thus, the more you work, the more you are able to climb the “ladder.”
The other perspective is that people’s social mobility is tied to their family’s social class or their relationship to the larger economic system. This approach tends to see social class and mobility as a system of conflict or a pyramid.
Social Stratification Pyramid
Middle class is controlled by ruling class; working class generally takes orders from others–the middle and upper-class. Thus, those at the bottom, the poor, have a hard time moving up because those at the top find ways to control the economic system to benefit them (tax cuts, corporate incentives and bailouts, etc.). And, a lot of focus on politicians, for example, is on the middle class. The poor or working class are usually not part of the dialogue when it comes to social class.
There are few examples of people who were at the bottom of the social class system and have made it all the way to the top (example: Oprah). This helps those at the top because these examples are used to show all those lower on the social class system that it is possible to move all the way to the top, and it they haven’t achieved social mobility maybe it is because they are not working hard enough. Yet, these examples are very limited.
Moving from the bottom of the social class system all the way to the top is possible, however, it is akin to winning the lotto and becoming a millionaire. It is possible, but the odds are very slims. Again, the best predictor of moving up the social class system is your family’s social class standing/the family you were born into.
While each of these two ways of analyzing social class differ, they share something in common–both look at social class in the U.S. as a hierarchy. There are people at the top, middle and bottom of the social class system.
INSTRUCTIONS :
1. After reviewing the course materials, what is one reason Matthew Desmond argues for the income inequality in the U.S.?
2. Based on the materials presented in this module, do you believe the U.S. is a meritocratic society? Why or why not? You must provide at least one source to support your position.
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