Topic: Discuss what you think is the definition of wealth with Marx's theory and discuss class inequalities. I am the one who has experienced the class inequality. I plan to talk about my inequalities
Social Inequality – Week 9 – Reading 1
Where Did Class Differences Come From?
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A newlywed couple is preparing dinner and the wife cuts the end off their ham before putting it in a roasting pan. Her husband asks why she cut the end off. She answers: “Because my mom always does it this way.” So, she calls her mom and asks, “Mom, why do you always cut the end off a ham before you put it in a pan?” Her mom says, “Because my mom did. I’ll call and ask her why.” So, the bride’s mom calls Grandma and asks, “Mom, why do you always cut the end off a ham before you bake it?” Grandma answers, “Because my pan is too small!”
We understand the U.S. class system now (see SE Week 7 Reading 1). But, why is there class inequality and stratification? U.S. classes originated and grew based on people’s relationship to the economy usually. For example, classes grew up out of the industrial age (the upper-upper class and working class Marx discusses). Later, classes evolved from necessary work and skills in services (upper-middle, lower middle) and from fame bestowed on entertainers and athletes by society (lower-upper).
Remember, these took time. For example, early entertainers and baseball teams made little money from their work. Baseball teams stayed in “fleabag” rooming houses and hotels for the “love of the game.” Entertainers moved from town to town never knowing how long they had a job. Early doctors and attorneys tended to be paid very little or paid in chickens, eggs, apples, etc. Early teachers had free room and board and a small allowance. So, these lower-upper and upper-middle classes grew and developed slowly over time.
But when do we get to class inequality and stratification?? Well, different classes had different living situations and developed values and norms based on those. Ways of raising children, celebrating holidays, housekeeping, dressing, and dancing differed. Manners, music, musical instruments, sports, and food differed. If you were on the social register (a real thing) in 1920 New York City, you had servants and 7-course meals. If you were working class immigrants, you made foods from your native country in one course. As the middle classes grew, they stressed education while working class parents hoped their kids would get a good factory job, with unions & benefits.
Upper-upper class parents had pianos, violins and lessons for their kids. Working class parents had guitars, banjos, and ukuleles. White collar workers were in offices and blue collar workers on factory floors, the beginnings of dress differences. We can find more examples but the point is, as time goes on, these differences are passed from generation to generation and often become the basis for class prejudice.
Ethnocentricity means judging other cultures based on your own. We could call different classes sub-cultures because of these cultural differences. Individuals judged other classes ethnocentrically, based on their own sub-cultures. Prejudice and discrimination grew. Thus, stratification and inequality.
Class Consciousness
From sociological theory, you may know this term from Marx who believed workers of the world would eventually figure out they were being exploited and rise up and create socialism which would be followed by worldwide communism, as we learned earlier. He would be surprised to see the world’s communist societies (Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela) run by totalitarian dictators, not by egalitarian governments. He would be surprised to see human rights commonly violated, that a person can even disappear and that’s it!
As we’ve already said, he would also be surprised to see the variety of classes and their positions in society compared to capitalist corporations and factory workers, two opposing classes. He would be surprised to see socialistic policies like Medicaid, food stamps, and relief on utility bills within capitalistic societies.
To go on, Marx felt the classes first would be defined by the structures of society and workers would not be aware of being exploited. Later, working class members would gain awareness of their common interests, then of being exploited (class consciousness), then they would gain solidarity and eventually overtake existing governments.
We can see his terminology today in things like “class action suits,” lawsuits against corporations or organizations when groups find they’ve been knowingly victimized by products or practices.
Class Inequality Today
From recent news, you know about class inequality. You wrote about the College Admissions scandal, how some lower-upper class celebrities and executives, lied, cheated made large payments to get their children into prestigious universities. Harvard, Yale and most Ivy League schools accept children of alumni, especially contributing alumni, before more qualified middle and working class students.
Sociologists have written about how knowing children of executives and others in high places gives opportunities to apply for impressive positions. Ironically, it may not be the quality of education at well-known schools the parents in the scandal were looking for. Knowing the “right people” and having the degree from the “right school” is what concerned them.
As you read the two books in this class, you see class inequality. You may think it is all racial inequality in Kotlowitz’ book and there is plenty of that. But, class inequality may be more important.
For example, the children of a black hospital administrator, living in an upper middle class suburb will have a very different life from Pharoah and Lafeyette despite their race. And, although gender is the main focus of Chambers’ book, class inequality shouts from the pages.
Cultural Capital
There is one more important dimension of class inequality, especially since many of you will be working with diverse groups of people in your potential careers.
President Lyndon Johnson was not only a congressman, impressive senate majority leader, vice president, and 37th U.S. President, he headed a huge media & ranch business. Born on a Texas farm, a high school teacher after attending state college, he had many characteristics President Trump was criticized for. He was very frank and often vulgar, but there was no Twitter. (He was a Democrat as Trump once was). He constantly offended people with his language and thinking out loud. As Vice President under Kennedy, he handed his business over to his wife. He knew how to get things done.
He well understood the cultural capital. Many features of social life benefit us in terms of opportunities. If our parents speak correct English, we have a plus without any special effort. If our parents get us books, take us to museums, historical places, on trips, we learn and absorb information that makes us diverse in thinking and knowledge. If parents get us music lessons, sports team participation. or art lessons, we gain skills and are “broadened” in our outlook.
In college, the more experiences we have, the better. Several in this class are doing minors and certificate programs, which increase your skills and employability! Belonging to clubs, learning new things, traveling, and reading expand our skills and make us more interesting adults. ALL OF THIS IS KNOWN AS CULTURAL CAPITAL.
You know what capital is….it’s usually money, something we can spend. Well, cultural capital is also valuable; we can spend it on getting a certain career or position, finding solutions in life, helping others, or just being an interesting person with an interesting life.
Johnson, farm boy, and later president, recognized these things in college and began to find as many experiences as he could: joining activities, getting to be student assistant to the college’s president. Personable and friendly, he made sure people understood they needed to go through him for appointments. He developed the skills needed later for his business success and then political success. He went far. The Viet Nam War, begun by Kennedy, was the legacy that eventually made him unpopular and he went home & back to his businesses. But, the point here is that he rose from working class boy to successful businessman, to one of the best-known senate majority leaders to vice president, then president. Much of this success is owing to his understanding and use of cultural capital.
Poverty: Finally, I add the point that poverty can be either objective or subjective (terms we’ve used). This relates to class in terms of what families can afford to provide for their members.
Objective Poverty means your income is below “the poverty line,” a government-reported term. The poverty line is based on what it costs in a certain area to provide bare necessities of living for an individual or family of four. This objective measure, changes in different areas.
Recently, we’ve heard people working from home & moving from high-cost cities (like New York, Chicago), to less expensive towns or suburbs, their income may be cut. Employers say if the cost of living is less, income should be cut. What does this have to do with poverty? Objective versus subjective evaluations of income.
The poverty line in San Francisco is $82,200 for an individual, $117,400 for a family of 4. Of course, we can find many areas in this country where those incomes provide a middle- or even upper middle-class life with a nice home, nice clothes, vacations, leisure, etc. But, not in San Francisco! By contrast, the national poverty line is $12,140 for an individual and $25,100 for a family of four.
The bottom line is that objective poverty is defined by these measures. It has nothing to do with how we feel about our income.
Subjective Poverty is a belief that one is poor, based on feelings about what one’s income can provide. If we see others have more, we feel poor no matter what the official number is.
Relative Deprivation is a related term that refers to how groups of people may feel when they see others have more. With so many in the class planning to work with people from different backgrounds, it’s good to understand this concept.
Decades ago, the Russian Premier came to the U.S. American officials, aware of living conditions in Russia, on tour, took him to a Baltimore working class neighborhood of row houses. They thought if they took him to a nice suburb with bigger homes, he would say he wasn’t allowed to see “regular neighborhoods.” But, it didn’t matter. He believed the Baltimore row houses to be homes of the wealthy.
Visiting Russia in 1996, I understood. Most families live in a 2-room apartment in an unpainted concrete block building with dirt paths and no grass. When I asked the guide what two rooms they were, she said, the kitchen and bathroom. I asked where they sleep, then. She said “in the hallway between the kitchen and bathroom.”
Basically, then, most middle-class Russians live a life that is more deprived than most lower class Americans. People in San Francisco living on $117,400 per year are objectively poor. If they drive 4 hours into Nevada, they will see people living a very nice middle class life on the same income and they will feel relatively deprived.