Harford Community College
Introduction to Sociology
Chapter 10: Social Class ad Poverty in the United States
Class Notes
Spring Semester 2006
Course: SOC 101
Instructor: Sharon Duncan-Jones
Email: sduncanj@harford.edu
Textbook: SOCIOLOGY, Popenoe, David, Prentice Hall, New Jersey © 2000
The lower class – the most deprived in America, includes about 8% of the adults
and is dominated by racial and ethnic minority groups, who lack education and
skilled and who are often the object of discrimination. They may want to be in
the main stream of society, but they join fewer groups and vote less than do the
members of any other class.
The working class consists of people who perform manual labor and they make
up 45% of the labor force. Through unionism this class has much political and
economic power, but they are not yet free of financial worries, job layoff, or
unrewarding work.
The lower middle class or white-collar category constitutes 35% of the
workforce. It includes those who run small businesses as well as those who
work in large organizations; their work in intellectual or social rather than manual.
Member of this class show a special concern for prestige and status and tend to
be status seeker. That is they invest much if their disposable income in goods
and services that can be used as status symbols. Traditionally, the members of
this class adhere to Protestant ethnic, a set of moral and ethical principles
stressing hard work, honesty, sexual modesty and responsibility.
The upper middle class is the mist recent social class to emerge in modern
societies. The class is the result of the need to expert knowledge in a
technological society (e.g. lawyers and physicians). They make up 10% of the
population. They find work a central life interest and much of their social lives
revolve around work. At leisure, this class reads more and watches less
television than do members of the lower social classes.
The upper class occupies top level positions in big business, entertainment,
industry, trade union, government and the military, The lifestyle of the upper
class is typically conservative, often elegant, and is distinguished by the
education in private schools and membership in exclusive clubs. The members
of the upper class tend to define their class as a category that one is born into.
