Sociology chapter 7 Social Stratification is the ranking or people and rewards they receive based on an objective criteria often including wealth power and or prestige Income is the money received for work or through investments Wealth is all of your material possessions including income Income Distribution The entire US can be put into 5 equal groups These groups consist of the poorest 20 percent of the country s earning which receive 3 4 percent of the total income The top twenty percent of the receive fifty percent of the country s income The middle receives an average of 50 303 a year decline of 3 6 percent Wealth Distribution The top one percent of wealthy Americans control more total wealth then the bottom 90 percent Generally men have more wealth than women stocks and personal residences make up the top largest categories of wealth top wealth holders in the US are predominantly married or widowed and the wealth distribution shows geographic trends How does the United States define Poverty Five different kinds of poverty Transitional poverty is a temporary state of poverty that occurs when someone loses a job for a short time Marginal poverty is a state of poverty that occurs when a person lacks stable employment Residual poverty is a chronic and multigenerational poverty Absolute poverty is poverty so severe that one lacks resources to survive Relative poverty is a state of poverty that occurs when we compare ourselves to those around us Power Is the ability to carry out your will and impose it on others Delegated given or assigned Power elite small group of people who hold immense power high ranking political officials corporate leaders military leaders Use their social position and influence to direct the country s decisions Example Five media groups Time Warner Disney News Corporation Bertelsmann of Germany and Viacom Older wealthier and educated people are making key decisions for the entire country Prestige Refers to the level of esteem associated with our status and social standing Generally low paying jobs have lower esteem because of the stigma and vice versa They struggle to pay bills and struggle for respect Jobs are given a ranking of prestige from 0 to 100 Lawyers being 75 and drug dealers being 13 Wealth power and prestige are the basis for the stratification system used to characterize the population Class Structure in the US Most people say they are part of the middle class Five different social classes in the US Upper class upper middle class middle class working class and lower class Upper elite class is a social class that is very small in number and holds significant wealth Only about one percent of the population belongs in this group Approximately 3 million belong in this group Possess much of the country s old money Prestige wealth power Upper middle class is a social class that consists of high income members of society who are well educated but do not belong to the elite membership of super wealthy Comfortable living This group makes up of about 15 percent of the population Pay tends to exceed 100 000 a year prestige and education Middle class is a social class that consists of those who have moderate incomes Makes up of 34 percent of the US population The middle class have at least a high school diploma and many technical training or college credits 40 000 80 000 Working class is a social class generally made up of people with high school diplomas and lower levels of education Makes up of about 30 percent of the workforce Hourly wage Lower class is a social class living in poverty About 37 million people live in poverty More than two thirds of African Americans live in poverty The urban underclass Homeless and chronically unemployed are also usually impoverished A lot of times they use government assistance Rarely have health care coverage and often lack a high school diploma Minimum wage job It is a social class living in disadvantaged neighborhoods that are characterized by four components poverty family disruption male unemployment and lack of individuals in high status occupations Us urban poor are increasingly living in neighborhoods that have few opportunities poor schools weak social structures large amounts of crime and rampant drug use Neighborhoods and social class Poor people are living in neighborhoods of many poor people and vice versa Correlation of poverty to high crime rates increased drug use and increasing number of single parent homes Children bornin these areas are at an increased risk for lower birth weights poorer health lower levels of educational attainment and higher dropout levels On the opposite end children who grow up in a well off neighborhood do better in school have lower rates of teen pregnancy and have higher test scores Interestingly when a poor child is brought up in a affluent neighborhood this child tends to do better than the children in the poor neighborhoods Being the poor kid on the block is better than being another poor kid on the block Education and social class Grants free education to everyone but not all education is the same Not all schools are created equal Urban schools frequently lacked basic necessary to teach playgrounds often had little or no equipment chemistry labs were missing beakers and test tubes and students had to share textbooks Suburban schools normally had a surplus of supplies and staff Property values and taxes are higher in suburban areas The students who need the most help get the least Roscigno et al and Kozol say that student s who frequently attend schools with fewer resources than students are because of the parents socioeconomic status Social mobility Social mobility Is the ability to change social classes Horizontal mobility refers to moving with the same status category Example teachers leaves school to teach at another school Same money same tasks Vertical mobility refers to moving from one social states to another Promotion at work or demotion Intragenerational mobility occurs when an individual changes social standing especially in the workforce Climbing the corporate ladder Unskilled laborer to owning construction company Intergenerational mobility refers to the change that family members make from on e social class to the next through generations Only move up or down one rung on social class ladder Poor black children are 2 5 times more likely to be poor when older compared to other black kids For whites it is 7 5 times Structural mobility occurs when social changes
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