Sociology (Ch.8)

Working/lower class

-The working class makes up one-third of the population. Their blue-collar jobs yield an income of between $27,000 and $48,500 a year. -The lower class makes up 20 percent of our population. Low income makes their lives unstable and insecure.

Disturbing trends of the "American Dream"

1. For many workers, earnings have stalled 2.More jobs offer little income. 3.The recent recession brought economic decline 4.Young people are remaining at home.

Four principles of social stratification

1. Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a function of individual differences. 2. Social stratification persists over generations. a.However, most societies allow some social mobility or changes in people's position in a system of social stratification. 3.Social stratification is universal but variable. 4.Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs.

Why have industrial workers not overthrown capitalism?

1.Fragmentation of the capitalist class 2. A higher standard of living 3. More workers organizations 4. Greater legal protections

The extent of U.S. Poverty

1.In 2011, 15% of the U.S. population was tallied as poor. 2.The typical poor family had to get by on less than $23,021 in 2011 for a family of four.

U.S. society is highly stratified, but many people underestimate the extent of structured inequality in U.S. society for the following reasons:

1.In principle, the law gives equal standing to all. 2.Our culture celebrates individual autonomy and achievement. 3.We tend to interact with people like ourselves. 4.The United States is an affluent society.

These reasons are suggested for the failure of Western capitalism to experience a Marxist revolution:

1.The capitalist class has fragmented and grown in size, giving more people a stake in the system. 2.A higher standard of living has emerged. a.Blue-collar occupations, lower-prestige work involving mostly manual labor, have declined. b.White-collar occupations, higher-prestige work involving mostly mental activity, have expanded. 3.Workers are better organized than they were in Marx's day, and their unions have been able to fight for reform. 4.The government has extended various legal protections to workers.

Structural social mobility

A shift in the social position of large numbers of people due more to changes in society itself than to individual efforts

Analyze how social class position affects health, values, politics, and family life.

A.Health. Richer people live, on average, seven years longer because they eat more nutritious food, live in safer and less stressful environments, and receive better medical care. B. Values and Attitudes. Affluent people with greater education and financial security are more tolerant of controversial behavior, while working-class people tend to be less tolerant. C. Politics.Well-off people tend to be more conservative on economic issues but more liberal on social issues. The reverse is true for those people of lower social standing. 2.Higher-income people are more likely to vote and join political organizations than people in the lower class. D. Family and gender. 1.Most lower-class families are somewhat larger than middle-class families. 2. Working-class parents encourage conventional norms and respect to authorities; whereas parents of higher social standing transmit a different "cultural capital" to their children, stressing individuality and imagination.

Analyze the link between a society's technology and its social stratification.

A.Structured inequality is minimal in hunting and gathering cultures. B.A small elite controls most of the resources in horticultural, agrarian, and pastoral societies. C.Industrialization initially increases inequality, but over time social inequality declines somewhat. D.This historical progression is illustrated by the Kuznet's Curve.

Aristocratic England

First estate-church leaders Second estate-hereditary nobility

The modern Russian Federation

Gorbachev introduced perestroika, and in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. Social mobility is relatively common in the Soviet Union, especially structural social mobility, a shift in the social position of large numbers of people due more to changes in society itself than to individual efforts.

Upper class

Historically, though less so today, the upper class has been composed of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and represents 5 percent of the U.S. population. 1.The upper-upper class includes less than 1 percent of the U.S. population. 2.The lower-upper class are the "working rich"; earnings rather than inherited wealth are the primary source of their income.

Karl Marx: Class and conflict

Marx saw classes as defined by people's relationship to the means of production. a.Capitalists (or the bourgeoisie) are people who own factories and other productive businesses. b.The proletarians sell their productive labor to the capitalists.

Simon Kuznets

Nobel prize winning economist, recognized for the Kuznet's curve

Who are the poor?

Under 18, black, women, central cities

Caste systems shape people's lives in four crucial ways:

a. Caste largely determines occupation. b. Caste systems generally mandate endogamy. c. Caste systems limit outgroup social contacts. d. Powerful cultural beliefs underlie caste systems.

Four general conclusions about social mobility in the United States:

a.Social mobility over the course of the last century has been fairly high. b.The long-term trend in social mobility has been upward. c.Within a single generation, social mobility is usually small. d.Social mobility since the 1970s has been uneven.

The estate system. During the feudal era, British society was divided into three estates:

a.The first estate was the hereditary nobility. b.The second estate was the clergy. c.The third estate was the commoners.

Supporters of Marxist thought respond:

a.Wealth remains highly concentrated. b.White-collar jobs offer no more income, security, or satisfaction than blue-collar jobs did a century ago. c.Class conflict continues between workers and management. d.The laws still protect the private property of the rich.

Although the former Soviet Union claimed to be classless, the jobs people held actually fell into four unequal categories:

a.apparatchiks or high government officials. b.Soviet intelligentsia. c.manual workers. d.rural peasantry.

Wealth

consists of the total amount of money and other assets, minus outstanding debts. It is distributed even less equally than income.

Ideology

cultural beliefs that justify social stratification. 1.Plato and Marx on ideology. Plato explained that every culture considers some type of inequality "fair." Marx understood this fact, although he was far more critical of inequality than Plato. 2.Historical patterns of ideology. Ideology changes as a society's economy and technology change.

Middle class

includes 40 to 45 percent of the U.S. population and has a tremendous influence on our culture. 1.The upper-middle class has an above-average income in the range of $116,000 to $205,000 a year. 2.The average-middle class typically work in less prestigious white-collar occupations or in highly skilled blue-collar jobs. Household income is between $48,500 and $116,000 a year, which is about the national average.

Meritocracy

social stratification based on personal merit.

William Julius Wilson

society is primarily responsible for poverty

Status consistency

the degree of consistency of a person's social standing across various dimensions of social inequality, is lower than in caste systems.

Davis-Moore thesis

the functional analysis claiming that social stratification has beneficial consequences for the operation of society