Page 248 - Essencials of Sociology

What Is Social Class? 221

Ah, New Orleans, that fabled city on the Mississippi Delta. Images from its rich past
floated through my head—pirates, treasure, intrigue. Memories from a pleasant vacation Learning
stirred my thoughts—the exotic French Quarter with its enticing aroma of Creole food and Objectives
sounds of earthy jazz floating through the air.
After you have read this chapter,
The shelter for the homeless forced me back to an unwelcome reality. The shelter was like those
you should be able to:
I had visited in the North, West, and East—only dirtier. The dirt, in fact, was the worst that
I had encountered during my research. On top of that, this was the only shelter to insist on pay- 8.1 Explain the three
ment in exchange for sleeping in one of its filthy beds. components of social
class—property, power,
The men here looked the same as the homeless anywhere
“ My mind refused in the country—disheveled and haggard, wearing that and prestige; distinguish
to stop juxtaposing unmistakable expression of sorrow and despair. Except for between wealth and income;
explain how property and
these images of the accent, you wouldn’t know what region you were in. income are distributed; and
Poverty wears the same tired face wherever you are, I real- describe the democratic
extravagance with ized. The accent may differ, but the look remains the same. façade, the power elite, and
the suffering I had I had grown used to the sights and smells of abject pov- status inconsistency. (p. 221)
erty. Those no longer surprised me. But after my fitful sleep Contrast Marx’s and Weber’s
just seen. ” with the homeless that night, I saw something that did. 8.2 models of social class. (p. 228)
Just a block or so from the shelter, I was startled by a sight
Summarize the
8.3
so out of step with the misery and despair I had just experienced that I stopped and stared. consequences of social
I felt indignation swelling within me. Confronting me were life-size, full-color photos class for physical and
mounted on the transparent Plexiglas shelter of a bus stop. Staring back at me were im- mental health, family life,
ages of finely dressed men and women, proudly strutting about as they modeled elegant education, religion, politics,
suits, dresses, diamonds, and furs. and the criminal justice
A wave of disgust swept over me. “Something is cockeyed in this society,” I thought, as my system. (p. 233)
mind refused to stop juxtaposing these images of extravagance with the suffering I had just seen. 8.4 Contrast the three types of
social mobility, and review
The disjunction—the mental distress—that I felt in New Orleans was triggered by the gender issues in research
ads, but it was not the first time that I had experienced this sensation. Whenever my re- on social mobility and why
search abruptly transported me from the world of the homeless to one of another social social mobility brings pain.
(p. 236)
class, I experienced a sense of disjointed unreality. Each social class has its own way of
thinking and behaving, and because these fundamental orientations to the world contrast 8.5 Explain the problems in
so sharply, the classes do not mix well. drawing the poverty line,
how poverty is related to
geography, race-ethnicity,
What Is Social Class? education, feminization, age,
and the culture of poverty;
If you ask most Americans about their country’s social class system, you are likely to get analyze why people are
a blank look. If you press the matter, you are likely to get an answer like this: “There are poor; and discuss deferred
the poor and the rich—and then there’s us, neither poor nor rich.” This is just about as gratification and the Horatio
far as most Americans’ consciousness of social class goes. Let’s try to flesh out this idea. Alger myth. (p. 239)
Our task is made somewhat difficult because sociologists have no clear-cut, agreed-on
definition of social class (Sosnaud et al. 2013). As was noted in the last chapter, conflict
sociologists (of the Marxist orientation) see only two social classes: those who own the
means of production and those who do not. The problem with this view, say most sociol-
ogists, is that it lumps too many people together. Teenage “order takers” at McDonald’s
who work for $15,000 a year are lumped together with that company’s executives who
8.1 Explain the three
make $500,000 a year—because they both are workers at McDonald’s, not owners.
components of social class—
Most sociologists agree with Weber that there is more to social class than just a per-
property, power, and prestige;
son’s relationship to the means of production. Consequently, most sociologists use the
distinguish between wealth and
components Weber identified and define social class as a large group of people who
income; explain how property and
rank closely to one another in property, power, and prestige. These three elements give
income are distributed; and describe
people different chances in life, separate them into different lifestyles, and provide them
the democratic façade, the power
with distinctive ways of looking at the self and the world.
elite, and status inconsistency.
Let’s look at how sociologists measure these three components of social class.