America has always been advertised as the home of the brave and the land of the free. Along with this advertising comes the expectation of an equal chance at the American dream. The class system in America has allowed both of these things to happen but only in theory. The idea behind the class system in America is that anyone can move up on the socioeconomic ladder granted that they’re smart, hardworking, or talented enough. This kind of system sounds pretty fair to most people which is why America has one of the highest immigration rates in the world. But I can’t help but ask if the class system in America is really as just and fair as everyone perceives it to be?
The idea of social stratification (or, at least, the knowledge that social stratification existed) emerged with the arrival of Portuguese explorers in India about 4,000 years ago. The Portuguese explorers were shocked to find that the indigenous peoples of India separated themselves into subgroups and only associated with the people within their own subgroup. “The many prohibitions on interaction led the Portuguese explorers to call the subgroups casta— a Portuguese word meaning “pure” or “something that ought not be mixed”.” (Lisa J. McIntyre, Pg. 196-197). This is where the concept of stratification systems emerged. In the caste system, mobility between different levels of the stratification system is impossible. You are born into your caste and then die in your caste. This same concept is prevalent in the estate system. But these stratification systems were more compatible with past times. The emergence of the class system in America came about around the same time as the industrial revolution and looks to be the most fair stratification system in the world. The harder you work, the higher up in social standing you climb. But that belief has been recently questioned.
Estate system.
Class system.
Caste system.
The Moore and Davis theory says that there is no social stratification system truly equal. They claim that inequality is present in every single stratification system or else there wouldn’t be people who have more than others. Branching off of this idea, the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics goes on to explain why class systems are unequal. “We also examine whether the likelihood of attrition [Attrition definition: the action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure] is related to past instability of such behaviors–earnings instability, propensities to migrate or to change marital status, and so on,” (The Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics, abstract). What the Michigan study is trying to say is that the reason individuals tend to belong to the lower levels of the stratification system is commonly due to the social standing of their parents. That means the reproduction of social structure is heavily correlated with the social standing of an individual’s past generations. This study had a very large sample size of 4,800 families and they meticulously accounted for third variables such as family dynamic. They even followed these families after the kids got older and created their own households. I would say that because of the large sample size, different demographics had to have been well represented. The sample size was also large enough to draw an accurate conclusion about the reasons behind the social standing of different people. A sociologist named James Loewen wrote an essay talking about how high school textbooks mislead students to believe that the class system in America is completely equal and that where you are in this particular stratification system is a direct result of the hard work of that particular individual. But what Loewen points out is that rich parents are able to afford certain health care and educational opportunities for their child which helps them to excel in life as well as increase their chances of staying higher up in the stratification system. However, poor parents don’t have these kind of resources available to them which puts their children at a disadvantage as well as keeps them lower down in the stratification system. Loewen got his information from 12 well-known high school history textbooks as well interviews with multiple high school teachers. His essay does not go into detail about the population or the demographics of the schools he visited so it is uncertain whether his conclusion is truly accurate. After finding many studies supporting that the class system is actually unequal, I tried to find other studies that argue that the class system is, in fact, equal. But It was hard to find any studies that strongly supported that argument. This leads me to believe that, if a meta-analyses was to be preformed on the many different studies supporting that the class system is unequal, we would run into a file drawer problem. It is possible that only studies agreeing with the inequality of the class system are being published and the studies disagreeing with the inequality of the class system are being kept in the “file drawer”.
Amount of people in a population belonging to each social strata.
So what do these studies mean for the citizens a part of the class system in America? Even though there are legitimate studies supporting the inequalities of the modern-day class system, I still believe that hard work positively pays off in most situations. There are definitely variables to be considered when it comes to poverty in America but I have strong hope that the people who want better will be willing to overcome the statistical obstacles in their way. My mom has a pretty amazing story of her working herself from the bottom to the top of the class system. It was hard, stressful, and landed her in a lot of debt, but she made it and she’s happier than ever. I understand that this story is purely anecdotal evidence and should not be taken as concrete evidence that the class system is fair but it is a story that supports my opinion. After all, if the class system was truly unequal, we would never hear about the inspirational success stories of people going from rags to riches. Ultimately, I believe that your situation is what you make it.
IMAGES:
https://socl120.wordpress.com/category/social-class/
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-Indian-caste-system-and-how-does-it-work
http://www.slideshare.net/jbradfo4/stratification-and-inequality
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-22007058
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-williams/is-the-sarah-palin-phenom_b_127521.html