14) Social Classes

Social class (or simply "class") is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories.

Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists and social historians. However, there is not a consensus on the best definition of the term "class", and the term has different contextual meanings. In common parlance, the term "social class," is usually synonymous with "socio-economic class," defined as: "people having the same social, economic, or educational status," e.g., "the working class"; "an emerging professional class."

The term "class" is etymologically derived from the Latin classis, which was used by census takers to categorize citizens by wealth, in order to determine military service obligations.

In the late 18th century, the term "class" began to replace classifications such as estates, rank, and orders as the primary means of organizing society into hierarchical divisions. This corresponded to a general decrease in significance ascribed to hereditary characteristics, and increase in the significance of wealth and income as indicators of position in the social hierarchy.

The upper class

The upper class is the social class composed of those who are wealthy, well-born, or both. They usually wield the greatest political power. In some countries, wealth alone is sufficient to allow entry into the upper class.

Middle class

The middle class is the most contested of the three categorizations, the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the lower and upper classes. One example of the contestation of this term is that in the United States "middle class" is applied very broadly and includes people who would elsewhere be considered lower class. Middle class workers are sometimes called "white-collar workers".

Lower class

Lower class (occasionally described as working class) are those employed in low-paying wage jobs with very little economic security.

The working class is sometimes separated into those who are employed but lacking financial security, and an underclass—those who are long-term unemployed and/or homeless, especially those receiving welfare from the state.

15 Social mobility

It is clear that stratification matters, but how sig­nificant is mobility in a class society such as the United States? Ronald Reagan's father was a barber, and Jimmy Carter began as a peanut farmer, yet each man eventually achieved the most pow­erful and prestigious position in our culture. Al­though other jobs offer higher salaries, the finan­cial rewards, status, and influence of the president of the United States are impressive by any citizen's standards. Although becoming presi­dent is a remarkable accomplishment for any American, it is particularly striking when the per­son has risen from such humble beginnings. The term social mobility refers to movement of indi­viduals or groups from one position of a society's stratification system to another.