Lecture 10 Stratification 02 28 2014 Stratification i e Inequality class divisions in society Poll of what social class American s think they are in 90 of American s think that they are in the middle class But this depends on how we define classes in general Working on stratification help us think of these issues Estate system politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility o E g Pre civil war American South white males were allowed to vote while blacks were traded as slaves or Feudal Europe monarchs were given land Caste system is a system of stratification based on hereditary notions of religious and theological purity and generally offers no prospects for social mobility o E g India s caste system based upon Hinduism religion Class system is an economically based system of stratification with somewhat loose social mobility based on roles in the production process rather than individual characteristics Your place in the economic system essentially what job you have and the resources accrued to that job Status Heirarchy system system of stratification based on social prestige Elite Mass system system of stratification that has a governing elite a few leaders who broadly hold the power of society ELITE MASS SYTEM Mills and Domholf suggested in Who Rules America that the upper class controls everything The upper class developed a society that resembles an elitist clique Not only a class but also a group Constitute a tightly knit group marry each other go to the same school conscious of each other go to the same clubs Have very different views of the rest of the society o Closed to Rules and Policies General public is more open to rules and policies that encourage equality than the wealthy Higher taxes should make affordable health coverage 73 for the masses o Corporate Power board of directions includes major share owners 15 of them more than one corporation Together this entire group controls about 80 90 of the corporations Small group of people control the majority of the corporations e g 13 people in Citigroup Inc and JP Morgan Chase o Network of Nonprofit Organization control policy debates by supplying money and funded for research They essentially shape policy discourse Healthcare reform like that of Obama s healthcare plan didn t offer public option Kind of hegemonic because we live in an Elite Mass system we never even debated about public option o Financing Politicians Fund major political campaigns They use money to influence politics funds special interest groups to prevent unwanted legislations and lobbying groups that would deter their wealth e g Coke Brothers funded Tea Party Politicians who are 100 pro business Lecture 10 Stratification 02 28 2014 o Control Media indirectly controls the government and public by filtering what is exposed in media A little bit crude but on the other hand if you think about all the reforms that has been implemented in the government it is most likely that the Elite Mass has been behind it e g American Welfare system elites thought that the lower masses would overthrow them if they did not give them enough benefits o High Taxes the upper class did not used to be against high taxes for the rich After World War II attempts to attack the rich with high taxes they spout this ideological construct that it would be bad for the economy no one wants to invest and there would be no incentive to work Does not coincide with history US prospered with high taxes STRATIFICATION IN THE UNITED STATES Socioeconomic Class combination of income occupation wealth and education When you break all this down there are three major groupings upper class middle class and lower class o Upper class the so called 1 wherein the own 42 of financial wealth in the US and their mean household income is 1 3 million compared to the 17 000 of the bottom half of the economy Most income come from investments stocks not necessarily all from annual wages Income money I earn and returns from investments Wealth includes net worth total assets minus total debts Most important indicator because you could be earning a lot of money but you owe a lot o Middle class are those with non manual jobs that pays significantly over the poverty line Professionals tend to seen as part of the middle class doctors teachers lawyers and teachers a lot of it is mental labor however if you define middle class as the pay scale a manual worker like a plumber who earns as much as a doctor would be considered as the middle class Shrinking Middle Class most of the manual labor jobs no longer As service sector jobs increase they start to not pay as well moreover service sector is now sourced from abroad Inequality therefore increases as well o Lower Class poor are those who are below the poverty line If you don t have children and you earn 11 000 annually then you are officially of the poor Genie Coefficient Measure of stratification Out of 135 countries US comes 95th most stratified Sweden Norway Austria Germany Denmark etc are most equal Countries on a scale that ranges from 0 to 100 if the country is at 0 then everyone in the country has the same income and 100 means that a small percentage of the population holds most of the money Lecture 10 Stratification 02 28 2014 Study Pie Chart of Wealth Distribution Americans were given three pie charts representing wealth distribution Most Americans think that the top 20 of the population control about 60 of the wealth real is 85 and 8 of the poor real is below 1 Karl Marx Related the class system The bourgeoisie and the proletariat classes as relation to means of production Even lawyers would be part of the proletariat because they just work for the firm Manager of the firm is a proletariat because he still works for the firm but he is also a bourgeoisie because he owns some of the stocks this is called the contradictory workers Does not necessarily equate to how much money you have Do you or do you not own the stuff that makes the stuff Bourgeoisie owns the means of production Proletariat gives their services for production o Related to Capitalism Marx thinks that as long as you have a capitalist system equality of opportunity would be irrelevant and does not matter it does not change the structure itself just who occupies the roles within the system unemployment is good because it keeps wages low o Martin Luther King recognized that equality in races does not effect fundamentally that structure of the rich and poor