What is stratification?

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What is stratification?

• A system in which nations or people within a
  nation are ranked according to relative power,
  property, and prestige.

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1.3 billion live on less than 1 U.S. Dollar per
day 1 billion of those are women.
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Why should we look at this?

• Life chances are impacted by stratification i.e.,
  the extent to which individuals have access to
  important resources, such as food, clothing,
  shelter, education, health care

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What are some systems of stratification that have
existed?

• Slavery -- the owning of other people
• no mobility
• ascribed, lifelong, considered property, not
  human, no rights, controlled via coercion
• contemporary examples?
• Child labor, debt bondage, contract labor

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Todays slaveholders have all the benefits of
ownership without the legalities.

• K. Bales Disposable People New Slavery in the
  Global Economy
• estimates 27 million people due to bonded labor
  or debt bondage
• Concentrated in Southeast Asia, Northern and
  Western Africa, and parts of South America but
  exists in all countries
• examples child prostitution in Thailand
• enslaved brickmakers in Pakistan
• domestic slaves in France
• Gatos - labor recruiters in Brazil
• Subsistence farming is giving way to cash-crop
  agriculture
• loss of common land
• govt. policies that focus on the production of
  cheap food for cities
• threat of physical force
• desperate conditions of poverty
• 1.4 billion people live on less than 1 (US)
  dollar per day.

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• Caste -- lifelong status determined by birth
  based on parents ascribed status Apartheid
  India Hinduism no mobility
• Some social scientists see a racial caste system
  today in the U.S. with long history against
  interracial marriages

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• Class -- possession of money or material
  possessions based upon ownership and control of
  resource more mobility in theory.... begins
  as an ascribed status but may have some degree of
  individual mobility via achievement

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• Gender stratification is found in all societies
  (although types may vary)

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How does stratification work in America?

• Beeghley -- Monopoly Game and American class
  structure
• Social Class -- groups who rank about even in
  power, wealth, and prestige (socio-economic
  status or ses)
• Based upon ownership and resources (materialism)

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Theories of Stratification

• Marx -- class is determined by person?s
  relationship to means of production -- labor is
  sold and a reserve army keeps wages low,
• Weber -- property (i.e., wealth), prestige, and
  power dictate class standing

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Marxs View of Stratification
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Davis and Moore - Functional Perspective

• 1 - some positions are more important than
  others
• 2 - important positions must be filled by
  qualified people
• 3 - qualified people have talents which must be
  translated into skills
• 4 - for their sacrifice, society must offer them
  greater rewards
• 5 - stratification is necessary for society to
  function properly
• 6 - stratification is inevitable its universal
• 7 - inequality should be left to evolve on its
  own

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Some consensus

• Occupations
• Occupation is the most important index for
  stratification in the U.S.
• How do we Americans rank occupations?
• 1. Pay
• 2. Service to Humanity
• 3. Education
• 4. Whether the job includes abstract thinking
• 5. Social Prestige
• 6. Autonomy (creative decision making
  opportunities)

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Occupational Prestige Rankings of Selected
Occupations in the U.S.

• Physician 82
• College professor 78
• Judge 76
• Attorney 76
• Astronomer 74
• Dentist 74
• Bank officer 72
• Engineer 71
• Architect 71
• Clergy 70
• Chemist 69
• Nurse 62 School
• teacher 60 and others.
• Author 60 Accountant 57 Actor 55 Computer
  programmer 51 Athlete 51 Bank Teller 50
  Electrician 49 Police officer 48 Secretary 46
  Mail carrier 42 Plumber 41 Farm owner 41 Dancer
  38 Mechanic 37 Bus Driver 32 Cashier 31 Gas
  station attendant 22 Taxi Driver 22 Garbage
  collector 17 Janitor 16 Maid 14 shoeshine 9

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• Tumin asks, But how does one measure the
• importance of a position?
• Who decided that school teachers are less
  valuable to society than lawyers?
• Who decided that clergy are less valuable to
  society than funeral morticians?
• Why not pay those who do the dirty work (i.e.,
  those jobs the rest of us dont want to do) more?

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Stratification
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Conflict Perspective

• Rewards are given to those in power or those
  who serve to keep the powerful as they are
  (wealth among the richest in the U.S. is
  inherited old versus new money)
• - There is less consensus than we think
• - Tasks and rewards are seldom equal, just
  defined that way by the powerful
• - It prohibits society from working as well as it
  would with true meritocracy

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• Modern conflict theorists
• Contemporary focus upon consumption and higher
  standard of living lead to complacency.
• Combined these lead to
• Alienation (a feeling of powerlessness)

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• Conflict theorists add
• In our society, if you work hard, you might get
  lucky, but chances are, you will remain in the
  same social class as your parents unless some
  structural opportunity allows you to experience
  upward mobility.

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Social mobility

• the movement of individuals or groups from one
  level of stratification to another
• (Intergenerational -- from one generation to the
  next)
• (Intragenerational -- over ones lifetime)
• Structural and exchange societal forces.

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Reasons for Slowed Mobility

• Shifts in labor market
• 1 real wages declined after inflation
• 2 -manufacturing jobs were lost and not regained
  at the same level of pay
• 3 - unions defeated and therefore not able to
  bargain for higher wages and benefits.
• 4 - relocation of manufacturing to overseas or
  states with lower wages-- no unions

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• 5 - assistance to the poor still being cut
  wealthy have been given significant tax breaks
  and incentives - welfare for the rich
  wealthfare
• 6 - increased use of part-time employees to avoid
  fringe benefits, health insurance, etc...
• 7 - job growth - but at the lowest end of skill
  spectrum.

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How does it look for us?The United States?
Arkansas?

• Have we been effected by these changes?

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(No Transcript)
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So What do we look like
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Distribution of National Income Among Households
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Who are the Poor?

• About 37 Million or 14 of our population
• But number of food insecure has risen to 38
  Million

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So how do we measure poverty

• relative versus absolute
• When a low cost food budget cost more than one
  third monthly income for a family

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Age is a major factor

• - 17 million are children
• Almost one in four kids are poor in the U.S.
• Children 18 and under 17
• (in Arkansas 28)

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Race is a major factor

• although most poor persons are white the
  proportions are much higher for minorities
• 12 Whites
• 33 Blacks
• 29 Latinos
• 20 Other
• Source 2006 Census, www.statehealthfacts.org/com
  parebar.jsp?ind14cat1

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Household Income by Race/Ethnicity in the U.S.
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Education is a factor
Education All Races White African American Hispanic
No diploma 21.8 15.7 34.8 26.7
High School Graduate 11.9 9.4 22.0 15.4
Some college 8.5 7.0 14.9 10.6
College degree (or more) 4.3 3.7 7.1 7.5
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Gender is a major factor

• female headed households Feminization of Poverty
  women and girls constitute a disproportionate
  share of the poor.
• Due to divorce, unwed mothers, lower wages than
  men
• Older women are twice as likely to be poor than
  older men

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Geography is a factor

• Rural versus Urban

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Jobs are a factor

• Working poor an additional 10 million those
  who earn up to 125 poverty
• If we use a more realistic measure of 155
  poverty the total is 18 million
• Subtotal of the poor 52 million
• Add those lifted out of poverty via social
  security benefits (16 million)
• Subtotal of poor 68 Million

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Education is a Factor

• 21.8 without H.S. live in poverty
• Drops to 11.9 with High School
• 8.5 with some college
• 4.3 with college degree

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About 45.8 million Americans Dont Have Health
insurance
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Meet the Smiths

• What would life be like in northwest Arkansas for
  a family of 4 with two minimum wage earners?
  Official poverty guideline is 20,615

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Working families in Arkansas
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Roberto, Alice.. and two kids

• Rent
• Utilities
• Car Payment
• Child care
• Groceries
• Insurance
• Clothing
• Medicine
• Entertainment