Transcript Land of Opportunity Rags to Riches Anyone can become rich

Chapter 7
 The unequal distribution of:
 Wealth
 Power
 Prestige

Due to meritocracy or social stratification
 Structured
 Criteria:
Social Inequality
 Race
 Class
 Gender
 Age
 Whatever
is socially important
1.
Characteristic of society
2.
Persists over generations
3.
All societies stratify their members
4.
Maintained through beliefs (ideology)
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Divine right of kings
White man’s burden
Work hard and you will achieve
 1. Slavery
 2. Caste system
 3. Social class
 Most extreme form of
stratification
 People are property
 Can be bought and sold
 Provide labor
 Status determined by heredity (birth)

Social Class

System based on access to resources:
 Wealth
 Power
 Prestige

Sociologists refer to it as socioeconomic status
(or SES).
The Role of Social Class in the
“Pursuit of Happiness”

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/05/07/us/1194840031120/
defining-the-american-dream.html

Land of Opportunity

Rags to Riches
 Anyone can become rich, famous,
powerful

Jobs & education available to all
Born to poor Jewish parents in
Brooklyn, New York.
First member of his family to
attend college.
Worked his way up from a
salesperson for Xerox
Became CEO of Starbucks,
and oversaw its rapid growth,
leaving him a net worth of $1.6
billion by 2013.
Grew up in tough South Boston.
Dropped out of school at age 14.
Pursued a life of petty crime and
drugs.
Wake up call after serving time
for assault, and decided to turn
his life around.
Estimated net worth of $165
million

Raised by grandmother in
poor rural Mississippi

Became a millionaire at age
32 when her talk show went
national

Current net worth estimated
to be $2.7 billion
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Richest people in U.S. keep getting richer.
Harder to join ranks of 400 wealthiest Americans
Price of entry to The Forbes 400 this year is
$1.55 billion
 Highest since Forbes started tracking American
wealth in 1982

Last year it took $1.3 billion to score a spot.
 Bar so high, 113 U.S. billionaires didn’t make the cut

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/201
4/09/29/inside-the-2014-forbes-400-factsand-figures-about-americas-wealthiest/

Core of “American Dream”

Movement of families up and down
the economic ladder

WEALTH
 Valued possessions: cash, land, buildings,
property
 Passed generation to generation
 Income=Money from employment, shares etc.

POWER
 Ability to carry out one’s will, even if opposed
by others

PRESTIGE
 Respect given to people with valued positions
or resources
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMhvYeQPOcE
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/08/2
2/video-lost-decade-of-the-middle-class/
 Upper class:
 Wealthiest people in U.S.
 About 1% of the U.S. population
 Most of the wealth of the country
 How the very rich live
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDPBxN9Ez1o&feature=related
 Playhouses
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feApzG9FUuY&feature=related
 People’s
opportunities to provide
themselves with:
 Material
 Positive
goods,
living conditions, and
 Favorable
life experiences.
(Gerth and Mills 1958)
 Life
chances are reflected in
measures such as:
 Housing
 Education
 Health
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Occupying a higher social class improves
your life chances and
Brings greater access to social rewards
In contrast, people in the lower social
classes are:
Forced to devote a larger proportion of
their limited resources
To necessities of life

Relative deprivation is a measure of
poverty based on living standards

People are considered poor if their
standard of living is less than that of
other members of society.

(Subjective measure)
 In
the U.S., the federal poverty
line (an absolute measure)
 Used
to determine who should
be categorized as poor

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An objective measure
of poverty defined by
the inability to meet
minimal standards for:
Food
Shelter
Clothing
Health care
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http://vimeo.com/84062548
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http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/zq2rpw/poor--in-america
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What are the characteristics of the “poor”?
http://poverty.ucdavis.edu/who-poor-basiccharacteristics-poor
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Karl Marx: Two main social classes in
capitalist societies:
 Capitalists (or bourgeoisie), who own the
means of production
 Workers (or proletariat), who sell their
labor for wages
 Max Weber: Social Class has 3 components:
1.
Class (Wealth: money, investments)
2.
Status (Prestige)
3.
Party (Power)

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
 The way we use status differences to categorize
ourselves and others

Erving Goffman: Social class indicated by:
 Clothing
 Speech
 Gestures
 Possessions
 Friends
 Activities
 Functions:
 Motivates people to achieve
 Allocates people into jobs
 Poor provide jobs for others
Theory in Everyday Life