Question

SOC-P2: Using Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl’s model of social class, identify the different social classes and describe the features of each.

Answer 1

• Sociologists Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl created a model to describe class structure in the United States and other capitalist countries.
• 1. The capitalist class (1 percent of the population) is composed of investors, heirs, and a few
  executives; it is divided into “old” money and “new” money. The children of “new” money move
  into the old money class by attending the right schools and marrying “old” money.
• The capitalist class can be divided into “old” and “new” money. The longer that wealth has been in a family, the more it adds to the family’s prestige. The children of “old” money seldom mingle with “common” folk. Instead, they attend exclusive private schools where they learn views of life that support their privileged position. They don’t work for wages; instead, many study business or become lawyers so that they can manage the family fortune.
• At the lower end of the capitalist class are the nouveau riche, those who have “new money.” Although they have made fortunes in business, the stock market, inventions, entertainment, or sports, they are outsiders to the upper class. They have not attended the “right” schools, and they don’t share the social networks that come with old money. Not blue bloods, they aren’t trusted to have the right orientations to life.
• 2. The upper-middle class (15 percent of the population) is composed of professionals and upper
  managers, almost all of whom have attended college or university and frequently have postgraduate
  degrees. This class is the one most shaped by education.
• 3. The lower-middle class (34 percent of the population) is composed of lower managers, craftspeople
  and foremen. They have at least a high-school education.
• Feelings of insecurity are common, however, with the threat of inflation, recession, and job insecurity bringing a nagging sense that they might fall down the class ladder.
• 4. The working class (30 percent of the population) is composed of factory workers and low-paid white
  collar workers. Most have high-school educations.
• 5. The working poor (16 percent of the population) is composed of relatively unskilled blue-collar and
  white-collar workers, and those with temporary and seasonal jobs. If they graduated from high
  school, they probably did not do well in school.
• With only a high school diploma, the average member of the working class has little hope of climbing up the class ladder. Job changes usually bring “more of the same,” so most concentrate on getting ahead by achieving seniority on the job rather than by changing their type of work. They tend to think of themselves as having “real jobs” and regard the “suits” above them as paper pushers who have no practical experience and don’t do “real work”.
• 6. The underclass (4 percent of the population) is concentrated in the inner cities and has little
  connection with the job market. Welfare is their main support.
• Those who are employed—and some are—do menial, low-paying, temporary work. Welfare, if it is available, along with food stamps and food pantries, is their main support. Most members of other classes consider these people the “never-do-wells” of society. Life is the toughest in this class, and it is filled with despair.
• 7. The homeless are so far down the class structure that their position must be considered even lower than the underclass. They are the “fallout” of industrialization, especially the postindustrial developments that have led to a decline in the demand for unskilled labor.