Stratification

1. Stratification

2. Studying Social Stratification • What is stratification? • How does stratification affect a person’s life chances? • Who gets ahead and why? • Who are the rich? Who are the poor?

3. Social Stratification “The division of a large group or society into ranked categories of people, each of which enjoys different levels of access to scare and valued resources.” Property Prestige Power

4. Social Stratification • Hierarchy of social groups based on control over resources. • Sociologists examine social groups that make up the hierarchy in a society to determine how inequalities persist over time. • Inequality is found in every society.

5. Social Stratification and Life Chances • Access to resources such as food, clothing, shelter, education, and health care. • Affluent people typically have better life chances because they have greater access to: • quality education • safe neighborhood • nutrition and health care • police protection

6. Social Stratification and Life Chances When the Titanic sank in 1912, 60 percent of the first class survived, compared with 40 percent of the second class and only 25 percent of the third.

7. Legitimating Stratification Ideology • A belief that legitimates the patterns of social interaction and organization • Classism • The idea that the capitalist system of the United States offers, if not completely equal opportunity to achieve success, at least sufficiently equal opportunity so that everyone who works hard has an excellent chance of acquiring wealth • Do you believe this is true in the United States?

8. Social Mobility • Social mobility - Movement of individuals or groups from one position of a society’s stratification system to another

9. Systems of Economic Stratification • Closed systems • Ascribed Statuses • Zero social mobility • India’s caste system is an example • Dictated who you could marry, what occupation you could have and the degree of contact with members of other castes • Open systems • Achieved Statuses • An opportunity to move from one social class to another • Does race in the United States have a caste-like quality? • No system is completely open or closed.

10. Caste System • Status is determined at birth based on parents’ ascribed characteristics. • Cultural values sustain caste systems and caste systems grow weaker as societies industrialize. • Vestiges of caste systems can remain for hundreds of years after they are “officially” abolished.

11. Hunger and Global Inequality • People in the U.S. spend $5 billion per year on diet products. • The world’s poorest 600 million suffer from chronic malnutrition. • Number of people worldwide dying from hunger is equal to 300 jumbo-jet crashes per day with no survivors, half are children.

12. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) • All goods and services produced within a country’s economy during a given year. • Changes in GDP can be attributed to: • Stable economic conditions worldwide. • Low inflation and interest rates. • Surging flows of foreign capital and expertise into emerging markets.

13. World Blank Classification of Economies • Low-income - GNI per capita of $755 or less in 2000 • Middle-income - GNI per capita between $756 and $9,265 in 2000 • High-income - GNI per capita of more than $9,266 in 2000

14. Global Stratification

15. Explaining Stratification(Global Level) • Global Stratification • 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tier • Core, Semi-Periphery, Periphery • Developed, Developing, Underdeveloped/Third World • Theories • Modernization Theory • Dependency Theory • World Systems Theory • New International Division of Labor

16. Explaining Stratification(Global Level) • Modernization Theory • Modern Societies have modern attitudes, prize efficiency, hard work and thrift. • Less developed nations have a tendency to reward people based on kinship. • If poor countries expect to modernize, they need to adopt modern attitudes. • Dependency Theory • Poor countries trapped in a cycle of dependency on richer nations. • The poor countries are controlled and exploited by rich countries. • Colonialism distorted the economies of poor countries.

17. Explaining Stratification(Global Level) • World Systems Theory • System’s center was Europe and now North America • System driven by economics which European countries and United States exploit the rest of the world for its resources • A country’s position in the world system is the key feature in determining how economic development occurs there. • New International Division of Labor • Commodity production is split into fragments, each of which can be moved to whichever part of the world can provide the best combination of capital and labor.

18. Explaining Stratification: Kuznet’s Curve • Theory that inequality mounts steadily as societies develop • This trend is thought to reverse with passage to industrialism • Early evidence suggests that inequality is getting worse with the movement to a post-industrial society

19. Social Class Slide 19 • Social classes are social rankings based on economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility. • Class system differs from other systems in four respects: • 1. Class systems are open and fluid. • 2. Class positions are in some part achieved. • 3. Class is economically based. • 4. Class systems are large-scale and impersonal.

20. The Impact of Social Class on Individual Life 1) Social class relates to health, life expectancy, and mental health. 2) Poorer people seem more exposed to stressful events leading to emotional distress and health-related problems. 3) Middle-class people are more tolerant than the working-class due to a greater eco. security. 4) The middle class emphasizes conformity to conventional beliefs and practices.

21. Marxian Criteria for Class Structure • Ownership of the means of production. • Employing others. • Supervising others on the job. • Being employed by someone else.

22. Marxian Model of the Class Structure • Capitalist Class - those who have inherited fortunes, own corporations, are corporate executives who control company investments. • Managerial Class - upper-level managers and lower-level managers who may have control over employment practices.

23. Marxian Model of the Class Structure • Small-Business Class - small business owners, craftspeople, and professionals who hire a few employees and do their own work. • Working Class - blue-collar workers and white-collar workers who do not own the means of production.

24. Weberian Model of the Class Structure • Upper Class - comprised of people who own substantial income-producing assets. • Upper-Middle Class - based on university degrees, authority on the job, and high income. • Middle Class - a minimum of a high school diploma or a community college degree.

25. Weberian Model of the Class Structure • Working Class - semiskilled workers, in routine, mechanized jobs, and workers in pink collar occupations. • Working Poor - live just above to just below the poverty line. • Underclass - people who are poor, seldom employed, and caught in long-term deprivation.

26. Self-Perceived Social Class by Race

27. Property and Prestige: Dimensions of Class • Income and Wealth • Income refers to monies brought in during the year from salary and wages • Wealthrefers to the valuation of real estate, stocks and bonds, savings etc • Both income and wealth are unevenly distributed (wealth more than income)

28. Distribution of Income in the United States • In the year 2001 • Median household income in the United States was • $42,228 • White-Non Hispanic Households • $46,305 • Hispanic Households • $33,447 • Black Households • $29,470 • Asian Households • $53,635 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2002. Money Income in the United States: 2001. from http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p60-218.pdf

29. Income Inequality, 2001 • Wealthiest 20% of households received almost 50% of the total income “pie”. • The poorest 20% of households received less than 4% of all income. • The top 5% received more than 22% of all income.

30. Distribution of Aggregate Family Income in the United States, 1999

31. Changes in the Distribution of Income Over Time

32. Changes in the Distribution of Wealth Over Time Source: Facts and Figures (October 8, 2001). Adapted from Table No. 1. Retrieved May 27th, 2003, from http://www.inequality.org/factsfr.html

33. Explaining Stratification(Domestic Level) • Functionalism • Social inequality is necessary and inevitable in society • Systems of stratification exist because they must serve some function • Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore • Assumes that some positions are more important than others • Positions of greatest complexity and importance are the best rewarded • Unequal rewards ensure that the most important positions are filled by the most qualified persons • Unequal rewards encourage talented people to go through long periods of training to fill these positions

34. Critiques of the Davis and Moore Thesis • Critique: • Do we deny rewards based on ascribed characteristics? • Gender • Race • Age • Do social class relations block talent from filling important positions? • The rich have more opportunity than the poor • Are the most valued and skilled positions always the best rewarded ? • Teachers vs. Celebrities

35. Explaining Stratification(Domestic Level) • Deficiency Theory • Differences due to variation in abilities • Popular in the latter half of the 19th century • Herbert Spencer coins term “Social Darwinism” • The poor are that way because of physical and cultural inferiority • The poor must be allowed to suffer and expire • Poverty is life’s way of eliminating the least desirable

36. Explaining Stratification(Domestic Level) • Conflict Theories • Stratification the result of competition among classes • Powerful groups and individual maintain their advantage at the expense of others • Karl Marx • Stratification has its roots in control of surplus • Classes emerge based on their relationship to the means of production • What society uses to create wealth • Two classes emerge • Bourgeoisie and Proletariat

37. Explaining Stratification(Domestic Level) • Bourgeoisie • The owners of capital • Competitive advantage • Exploit labor • Through control over the surplus value produced by workers • Proletariat • Workers or Masses • Their ability to work with their hands, bodies, and minds is their only resource • Unable to obtain an income alone they rely on employment from the Bourgeoisie. • This means dependence and an unequal social relationship • Clash of interests • Bourgeoisie seek to reduce wages and produce more with less input • Proletariat seek to increase wages and improve working conditions

38. Explaining Stratification(Domestic Level) • Marx argues: • One’s position can only improve through revolution • Stratification is avoidable • Class consciousness • Realization of shared interest and collectively act to meet those interests • Why has it so rarely occurred • False Consciousness • Failure to realize class interest • Failure to identify one’s oppressor

39. Critiques of the Marxist Perspective • Critiques: • Polarization did not happen as expected • Capitalist societies contain many social classes • Governments intervened in economies • To smooth out busts and booms and control polarizations • Capitalist economies more productive than imaginable

40. Explaining Stratification(Domestic Level) Conflict Theories • Max Weber • Social stratification is multidimensional and unavoidable • Three systems of structured inequality • Property • Propertied class more complex than Marx envisioned • There are the entrepreneurs that produce something of value and there are the rentiers who live off the returns of their investments • Prestige • Status groups of different lifestyles or patterns of consumption given varying degrees of honor or esteem • Power • The ability to compel someone else to do something is unequally distributed and frequently tied to positions not money

41. Explaining Stratification(Domestic Level) • Symbolic Interactionism • Does not really attempt to explain the emergence and operation of stratification • Emphasis revolves on identifying how stratification affects everyday life • For Example • What are the status symbols that convey information about one’s position in the stratification hierarchy? • Can you identify status symbols that suggest an upper class social position?

42. The Class System in the United States • The Upper Class • About 1% of the U.S. population • Large Salaries and Accumulated Wealth • Approximately 40% of the Upper Class were born in their position • Two groups • The Establishment & The Nouveau Riche

43. The Establishment The old rich—several generations of wealth Strong in-group solidarity (class consciousness) WASP, prep and ivy school educated A culture of entitlement The Nouveau Riche Larger than the establishment and in many instances wealthier Their class position has more to do with achievement rather than ascription Characterized by conspicuous consumption Show symbols of their status more openly The Establishment & The Nouveau Riche

44. The Class System in the United States • The Middle Classes • Can be broken down into two groups, the Upper-Middle and Lower-Middle Class • The Upper Middle Class • Make up 14% of the population • They are the professionals—the managers of society • They tend to hold advanced degrees and enjoy a comfortable way of life • The Lower Middle Class • Average income range is between $30,000 - $80,000 • Make up 30-35% of the population • Low level managers, small business owners and non-retail sales workers • Most have a post secondary education • In many instances both the husband and wife work

45. The Class System in the United States • The Working Class • Income ranges from $20,000 to $40,000 • If a few case some make more • Up to 30% of the population • They are a shrinking class due to deindustrialization • What distinguishes them from the lower middle class? • Level of skill and occupational prestige • they tend to have finished high school but have limited levels of education beyond this

46. The Class System in the United States • The Working Poor • Those who spent at least half of the year participating in the labor force and whose income fell below or near the official poverty threshold • In 2002, a person making minimum wage ($5.15) working a 40 hour work week for 52 weeks out of the year would make $10,712 before taxes • In 2001, 11.5% of those 16 and over & below the official poverty line worked fulltime year round • In 2000, 2.6% of men and 4.8% of women paid hourly wages fell at or below the minimum level • Estimated that 22% of the population could classify as working poor • Some have a high school degree but most do not posses significant job skills

47. The Class System in the United States • The Underclass • Class locked into long term poverty • Assets and Resources Poor • About 3% of the population • Household incomes typically below $10,000 • Low level of education and lacking marketable skills

48. Absolute Life-threatening lack of food, shelter, and clothing Relative Individuals who make substantially less than most of the people around them and who cannot afford purchases that most people take for granted Poverty

49. Administrative Determination of the Official Poverty Line (2002) • The Social Security Administration and the Department of Agriculture • Annual food cost for adequate diet of a particular household size • Multiply that figure by 3 and you have the poverty line Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Poverty Definition, Thresholds and Guidelines: Poverty Thresholds 2002. from http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/threshld/thresh02.html

50. A Broken Formula • The method for calculating the poverty line (cost of food * 3) is based on decades-old data indicating that the average American family spent 1/3 of its budget on food. • The average American family now spends 1/6 of its budget on food. • Why has no one corrected this? • What would happen to poverty rates if the formula were fixed?