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Social class in the United States

Social class in the United States refers to the idea of grouping Americans by some measure of social status, typically by economic status. However, it could also refer to social status and/or location.[1] The idea that American society can be divided into social classes is disputed, and there are many competing class systems.[2]

Many Americans believe in a social class system that has three different groups or classes: the American rich (upper class), the American middle class, and the American poor. More complex models propose as many as a dozen class levels, including levels such as high upper class, upper class, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class, lower lower middle class and lower class,[3][4] while others disagree with the American construct of social class completely.[5] Most definitions of a class structure group its members according to wealth, income, education, type of occupation, and membership within a hierarchy, specific subculture, or social network. Most concepts of American social class do not focus on race or ethnicity as a characteristic within the stratification system, although these factors are closely related.[6]


Sociologists Dennis Gilbert, William Thompson, Joseph Hickey, and James Henslin have proposed class systems with six distinct social classes. These class models feature an upper or capitalist class consisting of the rich and powerful, an upper middle class consisting of highly educated and affluent professionals, a middle class consisting of college-educated individuals employed in white-collar industries, a lower middle class composed of semi-professionals with typically some college education, a working class constituted by clerical and blue collar workers whose work is highly routinized, and a lower class divided between the working poor and the unemployed underclass.[3][7][8]

Counties in the United States by the percentage of the over 25-year-old population with bachelor's degrees according to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2013–2017 5-Year Estimates.[26] Counties with higher percentages of bachelor's degrees than the United States as a whole are in full orange.

Counties in the United States by the percentage of the over 25-year-old population with bachelor's degrees according to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2013–2017 5-Year Estimates.[26] Counties with higher percentages of bachelor's degrees than the United States as a whole are in full orange.

States in the United States by the percentage of the over 25-year-old population with bachelor's degrees according to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2013–2017 5-Year Estimates.[26] States with higher percentages of bachelor's degrees than the United States as a whole are in full orange.

States in the United States by the percentage of the over 25-year-old population with bachelor's degrees according to the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 2013–2017 5-Year Estimates.[26] States with higher percentages of bachelor's degrees than the United States as a whole are in full orange.

Leonard Beeghley; The Structure of Social Stratification in the United States Pearson, 2004

Dennis Gilbert; The American Class Structure Wadsworth, 2002

Rhonda Levine; Social Class and Stratification Rowman & Littlefield, 1998

Class: A Guide Through the American Status System Simon & Schuster, 1992

Paul Fussell

Michael Zweig; What's Class Got To Do With It? Cornell University Press, 2003

Christopher Beach; Class, Language, and American Film Comedy Cambridge University Press, 2002

Harold J. Bershady ed; Social Class and Democratic Leadership: Essays in Honor of E. Digby Baltzell 1989

Daniel Bertaux, and Paul Thompson; Pathways to Social Class: A Qualitative Approach to Social Mobility Clarendon Press, 1997

Barbara Ehrenreich. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (2002), author disguises herself as working class

David B. Grusky (Editor) Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective (2000)

Alan C. Kerckhoff; Socialization and Social Class 1972, textbook

Jim Lardner, James Lardner, David A. Smith, editors, Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide In America And Its Poisonous Consequences, WW Norton (January 2006), hardcover, 224 pages,  1-56584-995-7

ISBN

Erik Olin Wright. Classe (1997) – a detailed Marxian guide to define working class/middle class etc.

David Popenoe, Sociology, (ninth edition, Prentice Hall, 1993  0-13-819798-9 ) pb. pp. 232–236,

ISBN

– wealth distribution in the United States from a Power Structure Research perspective

Wealth, Income, and Power

at the Wayback Machine (archived 2000-10-30) – analysis from Liberal point of view

Myth: Income mobility makes up for income inequality

Kalra, Paul (1996). The American Class System: Divide and Rule.  0-9647173-5-2.

ISBN

Kay Hymowitz / Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age (2006)  1-56663-709-0

ISBN

(1967). Who Rules America?, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall

G. William Domhoff

Lee D. Baker (2004). , Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 1-4051-0564-X

Life in America: Identity and Everyday Experience

at the Wayback Machine (archived 2005-06-04)

United States Census Bureau's official online income statistics forum

at the Wayback Machine (archived 2007-01-04)

Income distribution and income by race, United States Census Bureau 2005

at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2001-11-18)

Household income by educational attainment, United States Census Bureau

at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2001-11-18)

Personal income in 2004, United States Census Bureau

at the Portuguese Web Archive (archived 2009-07-10)

Median Family Income by Family Size (in 2004 inflation-adjusted dollars) from Census.gov

at the Wayback Machine (archived 2005-10-31)

Median Family Income by Number of Earners in Family (in 2004 inflation-adjusted dollars) from Census.gov

ClassMatters.com

Working Definitions

The New York Times

How Class Works