1. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 12e James M. Henslin Chapter 10 Social Class in the United States

2. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. What Is Social Class? Most sociologists use the components Weber identified and define social class as a large group of people who rank closely to one another in property, power, and prestige. These three elements give people different chances in life, separate them into different lifestyles, and provide them with distinctive ways of looking at the self and the world.

3. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Property Property comes in many forms, such as buildings, land, animals, machinery, cars, stocks, bonds, businesses, furniture, jewelry, and bank accounts. When you add up the value of someone’s property and subtract that person’s debts, you have what sociologists call wealth. Wealth and income are sometimes confused, but they are not the same. Where wealth is a person’s net worth, income is a flow of money.

4. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Property Just 10 percent of the nation’s families own 75 percent of the nation’s wealth. Since 1970, the richest 20 percent of U.S. families have grown richer, while the poorest 20 percent have grown poorer. Despite numerous government antipoverty programs, the poorest 20 percent of Americans receive less of the nation’s income today than they did decades ago. The richest 20 percent, in contrast, are receiving more, about as much as they did in 1935.

5. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. A mere one-half percent of Americans owns over a quarter of the entire nation’s wealth. Very few minorities are numbered among this 0.5 percent. An exception is Oprah Winfrey, who has had an ultra-successful career in entertainment and investing. Worth $2.8 billion, she is the 215th richest person in the United States. Winfrey has given millions of dollars to help minority children.

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9. Power “Democratic façade” that conceals the real source of power in the United States. Power—the ability to get your way despite resistance—was concentrated in the hands of a few. Some still choke on the term power elite, which Mills coined to refer to those who make the big decisions in U.S. society.

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11. Participants in the regatta at Genoa, Italy, are dwarfed by Paul Allen’s yacht.

12. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Prestige Occupations with prestige share four features: –1. They pay more. –2. They require more education. –3. They involve more abstract thought. –4. They offer greater autonomy (independence, or self-direction). Beyond affordability lies a class-based preference in status symbols. For example, people who are striving to be upwardly mobile flaunt labels on their clothing or conspicuously carry shopping bags from prestigious stores to show that they have “arrived.”

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14. Status Inconsistency Status is social position. Most people are status consistent; that is, they rank high or low on all three dimensions of social class. People who rank higher on some dimensions than on others are status inconsistent. The frustrations of status inconsistency tend to produce political radicalism.

15. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. How do you set yourself apart in a country so rich that of its 4.6 million people, 79,000 are millionaires? Saeed Khouri (on the right), at an auction in Abu Dhabi, paid $14 million for the license plate “1.” His cousin was not as fortunate. His $9 million was enough to buy only “5.”

16. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Sociological Models of Social Class Erik Wright developed a four-class model based on Marx: –(1) capitalists (owners of large businesses) –(2) petty bourgeoisie (small business owners) –(3) managers –(4) workers. Some people are members of more than one class at the same time. They occupy what he calls contradictory class locations. By this, Wright means that a person’s position in the class structure can generate contradictory interests.

17. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Sociological Models of Social Class Kahl and Gilbert developed a six-class model based on Weber. At the top is the capitalist class. In descending order are the upper middle class, the lower middle class, the working class, the working poor, and the underclass.

18. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Dorice Moore, who swindled and then killed Abraham Shakespeare, one of the lottery winners mentioned in the text.

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22. With a fortune of $66 billion, Bill Gates, a cofounder of Microsoft Corporation, is the second wealthiest person in the world. His 40,000-square-foot home (sometimes called a “technopalace”) in Seattle, Washington, was appraised at $110 million.

23. © 2014, 2012, 2010 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Sociologists use income, education, and occupational prestige to measure social class. For most people, this works well, but not for everyone, especially entertainers. To what social class do DiCaprio, Smith, Swift, and Carey belong? Leonardo DiCaprio makes about $37 million a year, Will Smith $30 million, Taylor Swift $57 million, and Mariah Carey $60 million.

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