Sociology Class 9 24 13 The Myth of the American Dream Everyone starts at playing field Climb up the social latter Value home ownership and financial stability Ability to accumulate wealth o People who don t succeed are held personally accountable for failure 46 million Americans live below the official poverty line 23k for a fam of 4 11 million of those are children Gov thinks 23k is sufficient but 32k is bare minimum Understanding Class Class is the oldest topic in sociology o Reason we study social structure Sociologists have used income wealth and education as measures of class for both individuals and nations o Income most obvious measure of class as it directly measures how much money you earn o Wealth not what you make but what you already have o Education correlated with income and wealth and so can captures social class before these are achieved higher education higher class When measuring class for children sociologists usually use household measures income and wealth education of parents especially mother Socioeconomic status Class o SES socioeconomic status combines income wealth and educational attainment to create a holistic measure of where someone falls on the social ladder We uses SES to study multiple levels of society individually and between nations SES Crime correlation between SES Health correlation between o Does not matter the amount of money a country has crime trust they had What does matter is the equality between poor and the wealthy Bigger gap higher negative rates mental illness crime Disappearing Middle Class American dream Middle class dream o 1990s 46 of households earned middle class incomes in 2012 this number was less than 40 because middle class is falling into poverty o 40 of Americas wealth is held by 1 of the population Reproducing Class Wealth gap in America is increasing because of the uneven distribution of resources and in part because of the reproduction of class Class based behaviors are taught across generations that work to keep people within their class o Learning to labor conducted study followed 12 working class boys why did they become 12 working class men Discovered two types of boy Lads working class boys who were negative about academics were louder more rowdy rebellious took control of race and gender to make up for lack of financial control cool valued fun over acedemics o Works for my father it will work for me too Ear oles respected teachers academic conformists o Parents instilled in them to leave class o Influence of parents and teachers to work hard and become high class o Unequal Childhoods conducted study How to raise kids Middle class families taught children through cultivation o Children were taught to question adults and negotiate with them o Children s time was always structured o Parents made sure that children were always learning o Children were taught to feel a sense of entitlement you can make it to the top Helped kids follow rules and the real world able to move out of social class o Better equipped to teach children how to apply to college become functioning individuals Lower class families taught children though accomplishment of natural growth o Parents gave children orders not open negotiable o Children were encouraged to trust and follow adults without question o Parents left education and child development to professionals nothing after school ended o Childs free time was unstructured and independent Not prepared for real world not move out of their social class Mobility Class is set of behaviors expectations ambitions and habits all of which work to keep people in their respective classes Mobility is dependent on financial health opportunity and luck but also on this set of behaviors and expectations that come with class Parents who understand rules of institutions like schools and work are able to relay info to children
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