Stratification

#Sociology

• Stratification is the separation of people into multiple different levels
• An easy way to think about it is like playing Monopoly
  • Normally everyone starts with the same amount of money
  • However, in real life that isn’t how it actually happens
  • One player starts with $6000,onestartswith$800, the next with $200,thenextwith$50, the last with $-38
  • Obviously this drastically changes your chances of winning or doing well
  • This is stratification
• Social Stratification - A system by which society categorizes people and ranks them in a hierarchy
  • The combination of these two things, ranking and categorizing, is what separates stratification from just generic social grouping
  • Everything from social status and prestige, from kind of job, spouse you can have, to your chances of living in poverty, are affected by social stratification
  • Stratification most importantly affects your ==life chances - How well people do in such areas as education, income, and health==
  • Money can translate into Social Networks
• Characteristics of Stratification
  • It is universal, but variable
    • It’s in ever society, but the degree of which or how it’s done varies
  • It is a characteristic of society, not a matter of individual differences
  • Rigid in some societies, while others are more lenient (meaning social mobility is more possible)
  • It persists across generations

Views of Inequality §

• Rousseau argued that private property creates social inequality that leads to social conflict
  • Links to the idea of self interest
• Ferguson and Millar agreed with Rousseau that private property creates inequality, but they also argued that this inequality is good because
  • the ability to create assets provides an incentive to work hard and be productive
  • which in turn leads to higher degrees of social organization and efficiency
  • and ultimately will lead to an improved society
• Thomas Malthus viewed inequality favorably, but only as a means for controlling population growth
  • The fear of poverty motivates humans to regulate the number of children they have
  • Thought that a more equal distribution of resources would increase the world’s population to unsustainable levels and ultimately bring out mass starvation and conflict
• Functionalism - Davis Moore thesis
  • Stratification represents the unequal value of different work
  • Stratification motivates the most qualified people to pursue the most important (and difficult) jobs
  • Without incentive of higher pay, why would someone want to do the difficult work?
  • The greater the functional importance of a job, the greater must be the reward
  • If this is true, we must have stratification
  • Criticisms
    • How do you compare the importance of jobs?
    • We don’t pay people according to the importance of their job
    • It assumes people paid are related to abilities and merits. It ignores the fact that much of our stratification stems from lack of equal opportunity due to race, gender, class at birth, not lack of merit
• Conflict Theory
  • Stratification stems from a fundamental conflict between the rich and the poor
  • Conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general
  • Stability is maintained through domination and power, not consensus
• Symbolic Interactionism
  • Examines the differences that stratification makes for people’s lifestyles and their interaction with other people
  • Conspicuous consumption - the acquisition and display by the wealth of lavish products that show off their wealth and to feel better about themselves

Standards of Equality §

• Equality of OPPORTUNITY - First picture
  • Inequality is acceptable if everyone has the equal possibilities for advancement and is judged by the same standards (meritocracy)
  • Antidiscrimination laws: everyone is playing by the same rule
  • Unrealistic ideal, excuse to keep status quo
  • 
• Equality of CONDITION or equity - Second picture
  • Everyone should have an equal starting point from which to pursue their goals
  • Affirmative action: extra opportunity for people with less privileged starting point
  • Food stamps, Medicaid, targeted recruitment
• Equality of OUTCOME - Third picture
  • Everyone should end up with the same “rewards” regardless of starting point, opportunities, or contributions
  • Free rider problem: when more than one person is responsible for getting something done, the incentive is for everyone to shirk responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight

Forms of Stratification §

1. Slavery
2. Estate System - a politically based system of stratification
   • A closed system, reproduced at birth. It’s inherited
   • Lords’ ownership of land leads to monopolization of power
   • Vassals and peasants work in exchange for military protection
3. Caste System - based on hereditary notions of religious purity; no prospects for social mobility
4. The status hierarchy system - based on social prestige, especially prestige links to occupational status
5. Class system - economically based system of stratification; loose social mobility
   • Karl Marx’s concept of class - economic factors are the main cause of division between classes
     • Our ranking in society depends on whether we own the means of production
     • Two classes, the proletariat (working class) and the bourgeoise (employing class)
     • This concept falls apart in modern society
   • Max Weber’s concept of class - based on three dimensions of stratification
     • Wealth - net worth of an individual or family, including income, stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets
     • Power - ability to influence others to do your bidding
     • Prestige - respect with which a person or position is regarded by others
     • Although wealth, power, and prestige usually go together, they do not always overlap

How is America Stratified Today? §

• Wealth vs Income
  • Income - money received from work, transfers, or returns on investments
    • It’s the flow of cash, how much money you get every month
  • Wealth - net worth (total assets minus total debts)
    • Includes things like your house, your car, your valuables, your cash etc.
  • Wealth is more important than individual income
    • Gets passed on from one generation to the next, determining a persons starting line
    • Provides a safety net in crisis
• Inequality
  • Compared to most wealth countries, the income gap between the poor and the rich in the US is extremely high. And it’s not getting any smaller
  • There is also a very high disparity between the amount of wealth owned by people
  • The 20 wealthiest people make up half of the wealth in America
• Socioeconomic Status
  • Socioeconomic status (SES) - an individuals position in a stratified social order
  • Includes indicators such as occupation, income, wealth, and education
• Three main classes
• Upper Class
  • Economic elite: income, wealth, power, prestige, they have it all
  • Source of income comes largely from returns on investments rather than wages
• Middle Class
  • Split into upper and lower middle class
• Poverty
  • Poverty has an official government definition
  • In 2018 the poverty line for a family of four was $26,200
  • Poverty is a state that families usually shift in and out of throughout their history, and often a clear distinction does not exist between the working class and the poor

Global Inequality §

• If we take a broad view of history, global income inequality has increased dramatically in the last few centuries
• Tremendous global inequalities have emerged through the combination of colonialism and unequal development

Social Reproduction vs. Social Mobility §

• Social Mobility - the movement between different positions within social ladder
• Horizontal mobility - changing of jobs within a class
• Vertical mobility - rise or fall from one social stratum to another
  • Two directions, up and down
  • Two forms, individual or group
• Structural mobility - Results from changes in the economy, such as the expansion of high tech jobs in the past 20 years
  • You change social class not because of your merits but because of something outside
• Exchange mobility - society is made up of classes and that these classes maintain a relatively static number of people. Should a set number of people move up from one class, then an equal number of people will move down from the one that was moved into
• The Status Attainment Model
  • An approach that seeks to specify the attributes characteristic of people who end up in more desirable occupations
  • Research shows that parental education and wealth, not occupation or income, best predicts children’s educational and other outcomes
• Class-Based Affirmative Action
  • Equality of condition
  • Give people more opportunities
  • A result of race-based affirmative action policies is that the most disadvantaged minorities are not helped and interracial stratification is enhanced
  • Class-based affirmative action could address these inequalities within minority (and majority) communities
  • However, the implementation of such policy would lead to difficulties when trying to verify social class