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228 CHAPTER 8 Social Class in the United States

“snotty” remarks to him. For their part, the janitors took delight in
finding “dirty” secrets about the tenants in their garbage.
People who are status inconsistent, then, are likely to
confront one frustrating situation after another (Dogan
2011). They claim the higher status but are handed
the lower one. This is so frustrating that the result-
ing tension can affect people’s health. Researchers
who studied the health of thousands of Europeans
over a decade found that men who were status
inconsistent were twice as likely to have heart
attacks as men who were status consistent. For
reasons that no one knows, status inconsistent
women do not have a higher risk of heart attacks
(Braig et al. 2011).
There are other consequences as well. Lenski
(1954) found that people who are status inconsis-
tent tend to be more politically radical. An example
is college professors. Their prestige is very high, as
you saw in Table 8.2, but their incomes are rela-
tively low. Hardly anyone in U.S. society is more
educated, and yet college professors don’t even
come close to the top of the income pyramid. In
line with Lenski’s prediction, the politics of most
college professors are left of center. This hypothesis
How do you set yourself apart in a may also hold true among academic departments;
country so rich that of its 4.6 million
people 79,000 are millionaires? Saeed that is, the higher a department’s average pay, the more conservative are the members’ poli-
Khouri (on the right), at an auction tics. Teachers in departments of business and medicine, for example, are among the most
in Abu Dhabi paid $14 million for highly paid in the university—and they also are the most politically conservative.
the license plate “1.” His cousin was Instant wealth, the topic of the Down-to-Earth Sociology box on the next page,
not as fortunate. His $9 million was provides an interesting case of status inconsistency.
enough to buy only “5.”

Sociological Models of Social Class
Contrast Marx’s and Weber’s
8.2
models of social class. The question of how many social classes there are is a matter of debate. Sociologists have
proposed several models, but no single one has gained universal support. There are two
main models: One builds on Marx, the other on Weber.
Watch on MySocLab
Video: Social Class in the United Updating Marx
States: Fact or Fiction?
As Figure 8.4 illustrates, Marx argued that there are just two classes—capitalists and
workers—with membership based solely on a person’s relationship to the means of pro-
duction. Sociologists have criticized this view, saying that these categories are too broad.
For example, because executives, managers, and supervisors don’t own the means of
production, they would be classified as workers. But what do these people have in com-
mon with assembly-line workers? The category of “capitalist” is also too broad. Some
people, for example, employ a thousand workers, and their decisions directly affect a
status consistency ranking high thousand families. Others, in contrast, have very small businesses.
or low on all three dimensions of
social class Consider a man I know in Godfrey, Illinois, who used to fix cars in his backyard. As Frank
gained a following, he quit his regular job, and in a few years, he put up a building with
status inconsistency ranking
high on some dimensions of social five bays and an office. Frank is now a capitalist: He employs five or six mechanics and
class and low on others; also called owns the tools and the building (the “means of production”).
status discrepancy
But what does this man have in common with a factory owner who controls the lives
status the position that someone of one thousand workers? Not only is Frank’s work different, so are his lifestyle and the
occupies in a social group
way he looks at the world.