Chapter 10
Class
In Conflict and Order:
Understanding Society, 11th edition
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Dimensions of Inequality
• Wealth
– The top 1% of wealth holders controlled
29.5% of total household wealth while the
bottom 50% had just 5.6% of the wealth.
• Income
– The share of the national income by the
richest 20% of households was 49.8%, while
the bottom 20% received only 3.4% of the
nation’s income in 2003.
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Dimensions of Inequality
• Education
– The children of the poor and uneducated tend
not to do well in school and eventually drop
out, while the children of the educated well-todo tend to continue in school (regardless of
ability.
• Occupation
– The degree of prestige and difference
accorded to occupations is variable.
Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
Figure 10.1 – Median Annual Income for Full-Time
Workers by Educational Attainment for People 25 Years
Old and Over by Race and Hispanic Origin: 2000
Source: U.S Bureau of the Census, 2000. “Educational Attainment in the United States: March 2000.”
Current Population Reports. Series P20-536. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
Social Classes
• Social class is a complex concept that
centers on the distribution of economic
resources.
• The dominant view is that there is no clear
class boundaries, except perhaps those
delineating the highest and lowest classes.
Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
The Order Model’s
Conception of Social Class
• Order theorists place individuals into social
classes according to occupation.
• Each social class shares a similar lifestyle.
– Upper-upper class
– Lower-upper class
– Upper-middle class
– Lower-middle class
– Upper-lower class
– Lower-lower class
Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
The Conflict Model’s
Conception of Social Class
• Conflict theorists focus on money and
power, rather than lifestyle.
– Social class is a number of individuals who
occupy a similar position within the social
relations of economic production.
Ruling class
Professional-managerial class
Small-business owners
Working class
Poor
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The Consequences
of Social Class Physical
Health
Positions
The
Draft
Effects
of
Social
Class
Justice
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Family
Instability
Education
Social Mobility
• Caste System
– Determines status by heredity
– Allows marriage to occur only within one’s
status group
– Determines occupation by heredity
– Restricts interaction among the status groups
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Social Mobility
• Social Mobility
– Refers to an individual’s movement within
– the class structure of society
Vertical mobility
Horizontal mobility
Intergenerational Mobility
Intragenerational Mobility
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Education and Social Mobility
• Educational attainment, especially
receiving the college degree, is the most
important predictor of success in the U.S.
• However, a college education is becoming
more difficult to attain for the less than
affluent.
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Poverty in the United States
• The U.S. has the highest proportion of its
population living in poverty.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Racial Minorities
Nativity
Gender
The Elderly
The Geography of Poverty
The Severely Poor
Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
Figure 10.2 – Number in Poverty and Poverty Rate: 1959 to 2003
Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, 1960 to 2004 Annual Social and
Economic Supplements; U.S. Bureau of the Census “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage
in the United States 2003.” Current Population Reports, P60-226 (August 2004):9.
Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2007
Myths about Poverty
•
•
•
•
Refusal to Work
Welfare Dependency
The Poor Get Special Advantages
Welfare is an African American and Latino
Program
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