Social Stratification And Social Class

Despite the debates about social class, the United States is usually described as having four major social classes, the elite or upperclass, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class (Goldscmidt). Classes are generally differentiated by income, education, and occupation although other factors do have an effect. The upperclass consists of about 1% of the population making 750,000 dollars or more a year as investors, top executives, or heirs to large fortunes (Hughes and Jenkins). There tends to be no question about who is in the upperclass as they are pretty clearly isolated in their power and wealth. The middle class makes up about 40% of the population making anywhere from 40,000 to 749,999 dollars a year (Hughes and Jenkins). The large disparity in income and wealth have led to a further division of this class into upper-middle class and middle class in some circles. The middle class usually work white collar jobs as professionals and managers, however some highly skilled blue collar workers are included. Those in the middle class have usually obtained higher education degrees and place a high value on individual responsibility for one’s class (Goldschmidt). The working class is composed of about 50% of the population earning 13,000 to 39,000 dollars a year (Hughes and Jenkins). Some also divide this class into a working class and a

Individuals within a society are grouped into certain rankings that is based on their wealth, income, race and education known as the social stratification. Sociologist use this to determine the social standings of individuals within a society. Social stratification can also appear in much smaller groups. These groups such as the work place, schools, and businesses can “take the form of a distribution of power and authority down the ranks”. (Cole, 2017) The Caste system is also another form of stratification that one does not get a choice in. They are born into it and regardless of their talents will hold positions that are given to them their whole life. Social mobility is the ability for individuals to move about their social standings.

Social class is a “tag” to define your status in a community. One of the main requirements you must have to be in the Upper class, is to have wealth and power. That is basically it, and obviously the absence of those characteristics could mean you are in a Middle or even in the Lower class. Sports are an activity that people do for pleasure that requires physical activity and sometimes has rules for the players to follow in order to play the game. It is most commonly played outdoors. It can improve your cardio, health, and physical condition. For example, it can prevent things like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer or even mental illnesses like depression.

The poor are people who fall below the poverty line. Middle class accounts for most people. The working class falls just below the middle class. The upper class account for a small percent of our citizens. The upper class is people whose income totals up to 150,000 or more per year.

Most people can determine what class a person is by just looking at the house that person lives in. If someone lives in a million-dollar home, then more than likely they are from the upper class. Middle class people usually own homes that are just big enough

Undoubtedly, those who find themselves under the label “working class” are often disrespected and suffer through emotional or physical discomfort, and sometimes both, in their jobs. The disparity of inequality between the American social classes are growing bigger and the chances of individual opportunity are growing lower for middle or lower class citizens. Political activist Barbara Ehrenreich details a life of a working class individual in her text “Serving in Florida.” In her text, Barbara describes her experiences of working in jobs that the lower working class are often employed in. Through her analysis of working in these jobs, she argues that many working

We have a lower class which consists of farmers, mineworkers, and teaches. This class usually has jobs with lower paying wages. The middle class is where you have bakers and blacksmith whose wage is pretty decent to where they can support themselves. Finally there is higher class where there is no limit. Actress, doctors, and people who owned businesses were a part of this class(Shmoop Editorial Team).

Social stratification involves various inequalities within a gender, race, class. When considering the role of gender, race, and class in the social stratification system, it affects the organization system which is known for disparity based on the families’ income statutes, lack of resources, organization activity, and systematic inadequate government law. In the following essay I will focus how social stratification inequality effect families and individuals in the United States based on a gender, race, and class. Society has lived over decades experiencing different types of inequality. For example, gender inequality has been around since our ancestors. Informing society and continuous advocating about inequality is vital for positives changes

Social classes in America are divided into three main categories. The three categories are rich, middle class, and the poor. “Social classes first originated in Palestine before Christ”

According to Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein in The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, Social class, a system of stratification practiced primarily in capitalist societies, ranks groups of people according to their worth. It is difficult to draw exact lines between the social classes in the united states. The most identified classes are upper class, middle and lower middle class. The upper class is just 1 percent and the middle class is 30 percent of the U.S population. Wealthy people erudite early in their lives that whatever money came into their households, at least of 10 percent was paid for themselves for saving purposes. They may have gone into the stock market; they may have invested in mutual and bond funds. On the other hand, Middle class people use their income to pay their bills first. All

Social stratification is the system of inequality based on ranking people or groups based on power, prestige, and wealth (www.sociologydictionary.org, 2017). This term is often seen as a cultural trait of the society and not a reflection of individual differences and involves inequality as well as beliefs that encourage the inequality. Social stratification can be either closed (ascribed) or open (achieved) and characterized by social mobility. There are two types of social mobility: vertical and horizontal. People who lives in open type societies often work harder to move up but in closed type system the social status determine by birth, like caste system and suppresses any desire for achievement.

America is known as the land of the free and home of the brave. When thinking of this you think about all the opportunities presented to people and all the freedom. An idea of America is that we’re a meritocracy, which means anyone can be able to to become anything they want as long as they work hard playing by the rules. Along with that many people believe that diversity will bring together the country and unite us all but that’s not the case. America is not a meritocracy.

Social stratification can be simply defined by stating that it is a system in which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy (Macionis, page 224). The concept of social stratification is based on four central principles, which are social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, it carries over from one generation to the next, while it is universal, it is also variable, and social stratification involves not only inequality but beliefs as well (Macionis, pages 224-225). The first principle, that social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, basically says that children born into wealthy families are more likely to be of good health, do well in school, succeed in a career, and live a long life (Macionis, pages 224-225). An example of this first principle can be seen in the what happened to the Titanic. The first-class passengers survived not because they were better swimmers than the second- and third-class passengers, but because of their privileged position (Macionis, page 224-225). The second principle states that the concept of social stratification is one that carries over from one generation to the next (Macionis, page 225). This concept is essentially stating that the social standing of a person is partially determined by their parents. Most people’s social standing remains constant throughout their lives (Macionis, page 225). While social stratification is

In “Some Principles of Stratification” Davis and Moore discuss stratification within society and how it impacts different

Social stratification is made up of hierarchical relationships among different groups of people. It is as though people are arranged in strata, or layers. Groups may be unequal with material resources, power, human welfare, education, and symbolic attributes. This social stratification began with the emergence of agriculture, but is now universally present. Stratification can be broken up into categories such as class, caste, age, and indigeneity. There is a difference in membership within these categories that can be broken down into ascribed and achieved positions. Society places people into different categories, defining their status.