Social Class in the U.S.

What class would you say that you belong in?

upper     upper middle     middle     lower middle     lower



How do Americans feel about class?

The United States has always resisted the pretentiousness of class.  The country was founded partly as a reaction to a monarch, which is in itself a class-based system defined by hereditary status and honorary titles.   Additionally, and maybe because of, its revolutionary history, the U.S. values equality, freedom and individual control over one's own destiny.  Americans do not like the idea of social class.

During the gilded age, the Horatio Alger myth was popularized as a promise of the American possibility of going from "rags to riches" a success story "only in America."  From Princeton professor Jen Hochschild's 1996 book, Facing Up to the American Dream,  Americans believe in the American dream and that success is attainable for anyone.   And from the PEW Research Center, this 2015 publication shows American attitudes about the economy including that 85% of Americans consider themselves middle class, including 93% of those who earned more than $100,000!

This 2015 article from Smithsonian Magazine details a number of sources that show Americans like to believe that they are middle class.

So why bother studying social class in the U.S.?

First, social class does in fact exist and to deny it is to live naively at best and possibly in delirium.  Additionally, although the idea of "middle class" is appealing to Americans, it is difficult to define because the U.S. is so stratified.

Second, social class so strongly shapes us that by understanding it, we will understand ourselves better as well as our fellow Americans better.  And this understanding is not just an understanding of how we think and what we value, but it also is an understanding of our life chances, or what we are capable of achieving and the likelihood that we achieve it.

Finally, social class and inequality correlate with a number of measures of society that show inequality makes societies less healthy, less productive and less desirable.

This 2012 post from Socimages of the Society Pages points to The Equality Trust, a British trust that seeks to limit inequality, especially in Britain.  Here are a few examples of the correlation between inequality and undesirable societal outcomes (for more, see the 2012 post linked above):

Social Class Inequality has been widening in the last few decades.

First, the social class gap is widening.  See this post from Socimages.  Here is one graph from the post.  It explains how income has shifted steadily to the top percentiles over the last few decades.

And here are some charts from Business Insider about the growing inequality in the USA.

Inequality from country to country shows greater inequality has damaging effects on individuals

Second, cross national studies show that social class inequality correlates closely to a number of troubling outcomes such as:  infant mortality, mental illness, drug use, educational achievement, incarceration, obesity, homicide and social trust.