SYG 2000: Lecture 21. Chapter 7: A Social Class Model, Mobility, and Poverty

I. Joseph Kahl & Dennis Gilbert’s 6-class model: builds on Weber’s cat: property/power/prestige

A. capitalist class: 1% US pop; owns 40% assets; worth >bot 90% in US; pass to children assets

1.“old money”: rare mingle commoners/go exclusive priv school/no work wage; law/bus deg

2. nouveau rich: outsider/no go “right” school/lack infl networks of old $/no in Social Register

B. upper middle class:>shape by ed/@all get bach deg; manag corp or own bus/profession/15%

C. lower middle class:34%/in job follow orders up-mid class; threat taxes/inflation; blur line wc

D. WC: 30%/rel unskill blu/whi-col work; <ed/inc than lmc; job <secure/>routine; >supervised

1. only hi schl diploma: little hope climb class/>fear be laid off/strive seniority than new work

E. working poor: 16%; unskill/low-pay temp/seasonal jobs/eg. sharecrop/migrant/housekeep

1. ed: most hi sch dip/many functionally illit/not likely vote/dep food stamps etc/fear homeless

F underclass: group people for whom poverty persists year after year & across generations

1. bottom 4%: no chance climb/concen inner city/no connect job market/some do temp job

2. low rung: mainly welfare/reaction: “why obnoxious, dirty people clutter my city?”

3. fallout of post-industrial economy: in other era would unskill work-eg farm work/dig ditch

II. consequences of social class: influence family life & education/religion/politics/health

A. choice spouse: cap class stress ancestors/purpose/destiny; learn impact “family line”

B. marital friction: leading to divorce grater among lower classes because of insecure job/lo $

C. education: prep schools such as Phillips Exeter Academy/Groton teach upper class values

D. relig: Episcopaleans >likely attract mid/up classes; low class >expressive services >loud mus

E. politics: higher on class ladder, >likely vote Republican; most wc believe gov intervene econ

1. wc: >lib econ, but >conservative social issues; people at bottom <likely pol active or vote

F. physical health: lower the class, >likely die before expected age/since health care commodity

1. lower class: no afford; 2ndly, life style: >likely smoke, sub abuse/no exercise/unsafe sex

G. mental health: 1930s-now, worse lower classes; stress come w/ pov; >div, alcoh, lo wage etc

1. class pos: gives greater control over life, a key to good mental health

2. treatement: rich get talk therapy (psychotherapy)/poor get drug therapy (tranquilizers)

Question: should medical care by a commodity that is sold to those who can afford it?

III. social mobility: climbing social ladder; 3 types: intergenerational/structural/exchange

A. intergeneration: when grown up children end up on a different rung than parents

B structural: changes society that cause large numbers of people to move up/down class ladder

1. examples: invention computer/depression; structural factor more important individual effort

C. exchange: up/down movement, yet proportion of social classes remains same, #s balance out

D. mobility studies: ½ sons pass dads; 1/3 same level; 1/6 fall; half of humanity (fem) missing

IV. poverty: poverty line: gov compute low-cost food budget multiply by 3;yet poor pay only 1/5

A. race: 9% white;just over 1/5 blacks/Latinos in poverty; for Asians 11%; most poor white!

1.myth of cycle: most poverty lasts less than a year; only 12% remain in pov for 5 or > years

2. myth: most poor single moms & their child:only38%; 34% mar couple;22% alone or non-rel

V. Children of Poverty: about 1/6 white children and 1/3 Latino/black child live in poverty

1. Daniel Moynihan’s explan: increased births outside mar; in 1960, 1/20 born illeg/today 1/3

VI. Social Functions of Horatio Alger myth:

1. Alger popular author: rags to riches exploits fictional boy hero no longer in lit, but in psyche

2. functionalists: stress that belief in limitless possibilities is functional for society