Social structure of the United States
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The social structure of the United States of America, in the technical language of social science, is characterized by moderate social mobility. It is a generally open society in which there are few legal barriers preventing change of social status either up or down. However, there is much debate over how effective public policies and institutions are at promoting and facilitating changes in status. Moreover, the United States has great extremes of relative wealth and poverty. Social class, in the sense discussed in this article, essentially consists of three factors: wealth, power and prestige.
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The Lower Class
The lower class in the United States consists of about 20% of the population and is deficient in all three factors. Many members of the important minority groups in the United States -- Hispanics, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans -- fall into the lower class, but the largest segment of the lower class in the United States consists of persons of European origin. The lower class is generally poorly educated, with low literacy and other employment skills. Their health is often relatively poor, with a life expectancy below the rest of the population. As a rule, they have a low rate of political participation. There is a high rate of unemployment and physical disability. Lack of money defines the class, as does lack of power and prestige. A significant portion of the lower class, especially single women with children, the disabled and the elderly, receives welfare.
Farmworkers
A number of groups in the United States correspond to the European and Asian peasant. Historically there was a slave caste and, after the American Civil War, a system of sharecropping in the deep South. There is still a small impoverished class of agricultural laborers. In contemporary times large numbers of migrant agricultural workers, in large part Hispanic-indians, perform field and packing work. See agricultural history of the United States and social history of the United States.
The Working Class
About 70% of the population is made up of working class people who work for wages in blue-collar, white-collar and agricultural occupations. The 30% of the population which works in blue-collar work is sometimes characterized as the "lower middle class". While they may be unemployed from time to time, in general, members of the working class earn a modest income through some skilled or semi-skilled occupation. Although they are subject to some economic insecurity due to fluctuations in the economy and layoffs due to plant closings, in general they have a stable and dependable income. A small part of the working class, especially those in organized occupations, enjoy an above-average income. Working class people often have some training and education, may belong to a labor union and have a modest level of political participation. Their life is generally not organized about their work, but around their personal life with an emphasis on recreational and family activities. See labor history of the United States
The Lower Middle Class
Owners of small business with modest wealth and income can be considered as the lower middle class -- in Marxist terms, the petit bourgeoisie. The petit bourgeoisie has been stereotypically considered a socially conservative class, a characterization which often does not apply in the contemporary United States.
The Upper Middle Class
10% or so of the U.S. population can be characterized as upper middle class. This is the well-educated, highly skilled portion of the population which works in executive and professional fields. Their work plays a central part in their lives and in their self- and public-image. They are often leaders in their communities and are socially, culturally and politically active. They may have modest investments in industry and business, but generally depend on income from remunerative work. A portion of the upper middle class are owners of small businesses. The historical bourgeoisie, considered as a class which supports itself through investment and management of capital, is split in the United States between the upper middle class and the upper class.
Farmers
Less than 5% of the population of the United States is engaged in agriculture as the proprietors of independent farms. Once the dominant American social class, this group diminished in overall numbers during the 20th century, as farm holdings grew more consolidated, farming operations became more mechanized and the majority of the population migrated to urban areas. Today, the agricultural sector has essentially taken on the characteristics of business and industry generally. In contemporary usage, a "farmer" is someone who owns and operates a farm, which more often than not will be a sizeable business enterprise; "agricultural workers" or "farm workers," who perform the actual work associated with farming, typically come out of the lower classes; indeed, they are often near-destitute immigrants or migrant farm workers. In this respect, farming mirrors big business: like any enterprise, a farm has owners (who may be a family or a corporation), salaried managers, supervisors, foremen and workers. With the number of farms steadily diminishing, the stereotypical humble homestead is increasingly the exception, for viable farming now means agribusiness; the large amounts of capital required to operate a competitive farm require large-scale organization. Modern American agribusiness farmers, though their "income" in the strict sense is relatively low, are at least upper-middle-class; more often than not they are very wealthy, especially in California and other Western states with large holdings operated intensively. The large landowners in California's Central Valley, Coachella Valley and Imperial Valley fall squarely within the upper class. Among farmers, "income" in the conventional sense is not an accurate standard of wealth measurement, because many farmers typically keep their official income low by placing their assets into farming corporations rather than drawing the money directly. Subsidies, which can be enormous, are considered "tax fees" and not as gross income under the Internal Revenue Code. The stereotypical poor, marginal farmer "eking out a living" from the soil, an image deeply ingrained in most Americans' minds by folklore, films, and even history texts, has now been largely displaced by agribusiness, which has bought them out and consolidated their holdings. See agricultural history of the United States.
The Upper Class
1% to 3% of the American population can be characterized as upper class. The wealth of the top 1% in the United States equals the wealth of the lower 95%. There are a number of ways that people fall into this classification, wealth being the most obvious, but leaders in any profession, business, or cultural area can be characterized as upper class. Portions of the upper class are highly educated, cultured and influential. Part are simply rich with only modest personal skills and achievements. Families who have been upper class for generations display a distinctive lifestyle. Newcomers, the nouveau riche, often do not share this culture, but may through socialization in private schools and other elite institutions acquire it over time. A tiny portion of the upper class is highly influential and has an advantage as its members seek high office in government or engage in efforts to influence events. Throughout the history of the United States opportunities have arisen for the accumulation of great wealth. A portion of the current upper class consists of the descendants of those who were lucky and aggressive enough to take advantage of those opportunities. Although a few émigrés may be encountered there is no American nobility, a grant of nobility being explictly forbidden in the Constitution. See economic history of the United States and social history of the United States.
Class in American Popular Culture
The above definitions bear little resemblance to those used by Americans when they discuss class. As commonly used, "lower class" usually refers to the poor, "upper class" refers to the rich, and "middle class" refers to everyone else. The middle class is sometimes similarly divided into sections, with professionals and successful small business owners comprising the upper middle class, and the others, among them white-collar workers, comprising the remainder. This class is considered to be the largest. In this context, "working class" usually refers to blue-collar workers. The term "lower middle class" is often used as a synonym for working class. See Culture of the United States for an overview of its culture.
See also
Further reading
- Michael Zweig, Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret, Cornell University Press (2001), trade paperback, 198 pages, ISBN 0801487277
- Paul Fussell, Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, Touchstone (1992), 208 pages, ISBN 0671792253
References
- David Popenoe, Sociology, (ninth edition, Prentice Hall, 1993 ISBN 0138197989 ) pb. pp. 232-236,
- Social Class in America - Analysis of the American class system
- Wealth, Income, and Power - wealth distribution in the U.S. from a Power Structure Research perspective
- Myth: Income mobility makes up for income inequality - analysis from Liberal point of view
