Chapter 8 Social Class in the United States. What is Social Class? Property –Distinction Between...

Chapter 8

Social Class in the United States

What is Social Class?

• Property– Distinction Between Wealth and Income– Distribution of Property– Distribution of Income

• Power– “Democratic Façade”

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– Power Elite– Gov’t Makes no Decisions without Power

Elite?

• Prestige– Occupations and Prestige



• They Pay More• They Require More Education• They Entail More Abstract Thought• They Offer Greater Autonomy

– Displaying Prestige

• Status Inconsistency



Distribution of the Property of Americans


Distribution of the Income of Americans


The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Dividing the Nation’s Income

Sociological Models of Social Class

• Updating Weber– Capitalist Class– The Upper Middle Class– The Lower Middle Class– The Working Class– The Working Poor– The Underclass



Marx’s Model of the Social Classes


The U.S. Social Class Ladder

Consequences of Social Class

• Physical Health

• Mental Health

• Family Life– Choices of Husbands and Wives– Divorce– Child Rearing


Consequences of Social Class

• Education

• Religion

• Politics

• Crime and the Judicial System


Social Mobility

• Intergenerational

• Upward

• Downward

• Structural

• Exchange

• Women and Social Mobility


Poverty

• Who Are the Poor?– The Geography of Poverty– Race–Ethnicity– Education– The Feminization of Poverty– Old Age



Patterns of Poverty


Race-Ethnicity and U.S. Poverty


Who Ends Up Poor? Poverty by Education and Race-Ethnicity


Births to Single Mothers


How Long Does Poverty

Last?

Why are People Poor?

• Social Structure– Features of society deny some people access

to education or training in job skills

• Characteristics of individuals

• Poverty triggers


Welfare Reform

• Reforming Welfare

• The Conflict View

• Where Is Horatio Alger? The Social Functions of a Myth


Chapter 8 Social Class in the United States. What is Social Class? Property –Distinction Between...

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Transcript of Chapter 8 Social Class in the United States. What is Social Class? Property –Distinction Between...