Social Class

                       Our economic status is another way of describing our class system. The class system is imperfect in classifying Americans, and offers a understanding of social stratification. The U.S. has roughly 5 classes which are: Upper class, Middle class, Working class, Working poor, and the Poverty level. The upper class is usually the one percent of the population, generally consists of those who inherited wealth called old money. Members of the upper class usually have a recognizable family name, such as Rockefeller, DuPont, or Kennedy. Some members of the upper class work, but their salaries are not their primary sources of income.

            The middle class is the, which includes about 34 percent of the population. The members of the middle class earn their money by working at professional jobs. They probably have college educations, or at least have attended college. These people are usually managers, doctors, lawyers, professors, and teachers. They rarely wear uniforms, although some might wear certain clothing according to their jobs, such as a physician’s white coat. They are often called the white-collar class, referring to many middle-class men to wear suits with a white shirt to work.

            The working class makes up 30 percent of the population. Its members may have gone to college, but more have technical training. The members of the working class have a variety of jobs, including: Electrician, Carpenter Factory worker, Truck driver, Police officer, and things of that nature.

This category is called the blue-collar class in recognition that many of these individuals wear uniforms to work rather than suits. People in the working class are more likely to be members of unions than people in the middle class. While there is a difference between the working class and the middle class in terms of their values, and behaviors, but their standards of living are often similar, the not exactly the same.

            Another new class in the ladder is the working poor. Estimating how many Americans are in this category is difficult because the line separating them from those who are at or below the poverty level is not accurate. Statistics say that approximately 20 percent of the population could be classified in either the working-poor or poverty-level categories. People in the working-poor category have a low educational level, not highly skilled, and work at minimum-wage jobs. They often work two or more jobs and receive no health insurance or other benefits. These individuals are vulnerable to falling below the poverty line. They have very little or no job security, and their jobs are easily outsourced to other countries where labor is cheaper.

            Every economy needs a group of workers that it can be hired during an economic lay off when the economy weakens. People at the poverty level do not meet their basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter. The poverty level, set by the federal government, is an estimate minimum income a family of four needs to survive. The poverty level is currently about $18,000 per year—a figure that has come under fire mainly because poor people, particularly those in urban areas with high costs of living, need more money to survive.

http://udel.edu/~cmarks/What%20is%20social%20class.htm

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america-no-less-socially-mobile-it-was-generation-ago-mobility-measured