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Social class in social stratification
Social class in social stratification
Social class in social stratification
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Ever wondered what factors influenced your placement in social class? Most people are born into their specific class. Class is a grouping of people by their income and similarities. The three main classes are ruling, middle, and working class. Each one of these classes has their own role and with these roles comes different amount of income and power. Classes are determined more by business-related issues than lifestyle. Determining what class someone belongs to does not simply rely on their appearance. This is because overtime banks have become more lenient on extending credits, prices on material items have lowered, race is not such a big factor, and more people are getting educated. Although many factors influence your social class status, …show more content…
Classes are influenced by amount of income a household intakes. The working class makes anything under $25,000 a year, the middle class makes between $25,000- $75,000 a year, and the ruling class makes over $75,000 a year. In association to these incomes comes the type of lifestyle one lives. For example, a child that is born into the ruling class is going to be more privileged than the child that was born into the working class. Many things such as habits, skills, and money are inherit from the parents. Lower class individuals aren’t given the best lifestyle. They tend to be living in high crime rate neighborhoods, and do not receive the best medical attention. People in this class do not have the ability to know their full potential. Most Americans are considered middle class, which have the tendency to lean to the ruling or working class. They have the ability to choose a better life for themselves since they are not as limited with resources. People in the middle class are given a fair advantage. However, people in ruling class are handed many opportunities causing more …show more content…
People have the ability to move up in class and have an improved lifestyle. Education opens doors to a higher lifestyle. Once you have sought higher education, you are offered a higher position with a greater income. The higher your position, the more power you control. Social classes are very diverse in skill, race, occupation, and gender. Statistics should not discourage one from being higher in class. After all, our different class standings causes us to act differently, live differently, and have different experiences and life chances
Social and economic class is something we as Americans like to push into the back of our minds. Sometimes recognizing our class either socially or economically can almost be crippling. When individuals recognize class, limitations and judgment confront us. Instead, we should know it is important to recognize our class, but not let it define and limit us. In the essay, “Class in America”, Gregory Mantsios, founder and director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education at the School of Professional Studies, brings to light the fact that Americans don’t talk about class and class mobility. He describes the classes in extremes, mainly focusing on the very sharp divide between the extremely wealthy and extremely poor. In contrast, George
According to Gregory Mantsios many American people believed that the classes in the United States were irrelevant, that we equally reside(ed) in a middle class nation, that we were all getting richer, and that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in life. But what many believed, was far from the truth. In reality the middle class of the United States receives a very small amount of the nation's wealth, and sixty percent of America's population receives less than 6 percent of the nation's wealth, while the top 1 percent of the American population receives 34 percent of the total national wealth. In the article Class in America ( 2009), written by Gregory Mantsios informs us that there are some huge differences that exist between the classes of America, especially the wealthy and the poor. After
The book Class matter shows the importance of how much people should value and appreciate the importance of a classroom education. How much you dedicate yourself to school can help you gain enough knowledge to be successful in the future. Having good quality education in America seems to be the closest thing to a ticket to class mobility. The book was very interesting in explaining what social class really is in America, and the way it affects people's lives on how they live day to day. The different types of social class is what shapes our society. But I think this book is more for those people who aren’t that aware of social class, or for the ones who feel that we live in a society that is classless rather then the actually people who have realized the consequence that class really has on someone’s life. Many people can relate to what stories are told in the book if not, they know of a person that can relate to these stories. As a person that grew up in the lower class, I can definitely relate to most of the stories told in this book. From experience, there is a big difference in this country between the rich, middle class, and who are the poorest that we see daily. Even those in the so called working class have to make continuous sacrifices and live very differently from those positioned firmly in the middle class. Some people may have decent jobs but the bills and other expenses people may have make it harder on people than those who are in the same class but don’t have to necessarily go through the same thing as others. The chapters that I read in this book broaden what I said to a better more clear understanding.
In the article, "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios shows us how what class individuals are in affect their lives more than they think. The author thinks Americans, don’t like to talk about class no matter is upper class, middle class, or lower class. He describes four beliefs about class in America and then he used statistical evidence to refute them. In this article I have deep feelings about the class. Here have two points first of all I thinks the class that you are in it will affect your life whatever you admit it to yourself or not another point is the class you are affects how you are succeeding in school it all affect your future. Class, will affect in the future what job you will find, what kind person you will meet. For example the
Growing up in The United States, people are given this idea of an American Dream. Almost every child is raised to believe they can become and do anything they want to do, if one works hard enough. However, a majority of people believe that there is a separation of class in American society. Gregory Mantsios author of “Class in America-2009” believes that Americans do not exchange thoughts about class division, although most of people are placed in their own set cluster of wealth. Also political officials are trying to get followers by trying to try to appeal to the bulk of the population, or the middle class, in order to get more supporters. An interesting myth that Mantsios makes in his essay is how Americans don’t have equal opportunities.
I feel the author is attempting to convey that class means everything when it comes to education. Mantsios lists several references and charts that show what the odds would be if you were low, middle, or high class to attend a university and what level of education you might obtain.
(p1) Broadly speaking, class is about economic and social inequality… (p6) We have a tendency for groups of advanced people to congregate together, and groups of disadvantaged people to congregate so that inequalities persist from generation to generation.
Education holds power over determining one’s class. Knowledge and refinement can set one individual apart from another who lacks the qualities of successful individuals. Finances and opportunities distinguish class meaning the lower class has difficulty in obtaining the same conditions of the upper class. Education ultimately dictates success and power in society. Education is taken for granted and should be recognized for the significance it possesses.
... that they affect one another. A person who lives by a lower income will not have that mines and chances of become wealthy. A person in the other spectrum, which is born into a higher class, will most likely stay wealth. This leads to an endless cycle of generations staying within the working class realm. The likely hood of a person moving up a class is rare but it does exist. People need to be pushed and have a drive to keep going and to keep trying. That is why we are told we have an equal chance in life so we can all strive for better even though in reality we do not all have an equal chance. But nonetheless people should try to become successful even if they never make it in life because a life without purpose, goals, or ambitions is a meaningless life. As humans we need a reason to live, another day for people to take advantage and make the best of it.
Social class is a subjective concept in social sciences and political theory where individuals are grouped into different classes. This set a hierarchy inside the society structure where the upper and lower class exist and contribute to the society. Understanding social classes and their effects on the people, as well as cultures and social behavior and lead sociologist closer to the development of an ideal society.
The USA is a very big country with a lot of people and the social classes are very important. We can see that social class plays a big part of people’s life. Everyday people are working, studying, trying to be better. Even though right now it’s a time when everyone has many opportunities in his life, anyway there is a gap between classes and groups of people with the same features. Your background probably will build your future. The main idea is that Social Classes still exist. There are three reasons why line between groups still exist.
In his essay “Land of Opportunity” James W. Loewen details the ignorance that most American students have towards class structure. He bemoans the fact that most textbooks completely ignore the issue of class, and when it does it is usually only mentions middle class in order to make the point that America is a “middle class country. This is particularly grievous to Loewen because he believes, “Social class is probably the single most important variable in society. From womb to tomb, it correlates with almost all other social characteristics of people that we can measure.” Loewen simply believes that social class usually determine the paths that a person will take in life. (Loewen 203)
In simple terms class is the status reached by an individual 's amount of economic assets. In every society people are organized based on their self prestige, self esteem, power to change their surroundings and influence on others (an
Social class can be measured unofficially by researchers or by using official scales that are government recognised. An example of an official scale is the Registrar Generals scale which was used in Britain from 1911 to 2000 and used by the government to measure social class. This model was split into two main classes, middle class and lower class. Each class was further divided into separate categories depending on how skilled the individual is. This system was relatively simple and easy to understand. However, the Registrar Generals scale was separated into classes based on the profession not the individual, meaning that individuals that were wealthy and lived off investments or inheritance would be excluded from this particular scale and not given a class position, this means it is not a clear picture of everyone’s position in society. Because the Registrar Generals scale measures occupation and does not take account of peoples own views of their class position, for example, someone with a middle class background may have a working class job but may not consider themselves as working
The Relationship Between Social Class and Educational Achievement Many sociologists have tried to explore the link between social class and educational achievement, measuring the effects of one element upon the other. In order to maintain a definite correlation between the two, there are a number of views, explanations, social statistics and perspectives which must be taken into account. The initial idea would be to define the key terms which are associated with how "social class" affects "educational achievement." "Social class" is the identity of people, according to the work they do and the community in which they live in. "Educational achievement" is the tendency for some groups to do better or worse in terms of educational success.