Today's Lesson:
- Besides income, what are the other components of social class?
- What does the median/typical American look like in terms of wealth, education, location, power and prestige?
- How does your family or the typical family from your hometown compare to the typical US household?
- How do all of these components affect each other?
Social Class Component 2: Wealth
Wealth is tricky to understand. It is everything that a household owns, such as the home, vacation home, cars, 401K, savings, stocks, jewelry, etc...But, you must subtract what the household owes. So, if my house is $200,000 but I owe $160,000 then my wealth is only $40,000 on the house.
Wealth Disparity in the US
One way to examine wealth is through quintiles (20% increments); If you lined all the households up in the U.S. by their wealth, what percentage of the total wealth would the top 20% own? And then the next 20% and so on...
Another way to think about this is if you have 5 people who are sharing a pie, what percent of the pie does the first person get, and the second person and third, etc...
CBS explains wealth with a pie here.
First, hypothesize, how much of the wealth (the pie) in the U.S. do you think each quintile (person) has:
Try the following exercise on your own:
Bottom 20%:______ 2nd 20%_______ 3rd 20%________ 4th 20%_______ 5th 20%_______Top
(least) (most)
Second, write how much you think each quintile should have?
Bottom 20%:
Bottom 20%:______ 2nd 20%_______ 3rd 20%________ 4th 20%_______ 5th 20%_______Top
(least) (most)
After you have finished answering the questions above, watch this video:
What is the reality? How is the wealth actually divided?
Here is the GOOGLE FORM for this Lesson.
1. How does your guess about wealth compare to how it is actually distributed?
Wealth in the US is more disparate than income! The inequality is shocking:
Here is another representation:
Wealth is so skewed that there is a 2022 Socius article devoted to explaining how difficult it is to visualize the disparity here. This is a graph of the bottom 99% of Americans:
This video from the ST. Louis Fed also explains the disparity in wealth in the US (2019).
The overall conclusion about wealth is that the disparity of wealth is greater than that of income (see the pie graph below). The top 1% of America owns 34% of everything. The top 10% owns 70%. And half of America owns 96% of everything. In other words, the bottom half, 50% of America, owns almost nothing. They have no money saved - for retirement or otherwise. Once you deduct their debts, they have almost no equity - from their homes, or possessions, or bank accounts.
The wealth of a typical American
This video from the ST. Louis Fed also explains the disparity in wealth in the US (2019).
The overall conclusion about wealth is that the disparity of wealth is greater than that of income (see the pie graph below). The top 1% of America owns 34% of everything. The top 10% owns 70%. And half of America owns 96% of everything. In other words, the bottom half, 50% of America, owns almost nothing. They have no money saved - for retirement or otherwise. Once you deduct their debts, they have almost no equity - from their homes, or possessions, or bank accounts.
Another way to see the disparity from inequality.org is that the three wealthiest Americans own more than the bottom fifty percent combined!
Wealth Disparity is Growing
Similar to income, the disparity on wealth has been growing:
Here is the wealth distribution in the US from 1990 to 2021 from Statista - note the blue line which has been growing since 1990:
The PEW shows trends in wealth and income 2020:
More wealth leads to more income and less taxes
The biggest way that wealth adds to social class is through passive income. The wealthiest Americans own investments that generate income for them such as stocks, real estate, and securities. Often, money earned through these investments is taxed at a lower rate than direct income. So, if you have enough money to invest and make even more money you are able to make even more money for less taxes, whereas, people who are working for a set salary and living paycheck to paycheck are often paying 20% more in taxes.
The DQYDJ analysis of wealth in America calculates the median net wealth for Americans at $192,000 in 2023:
Another estimate of the wealth (2019) of Americans from the Aspen Institute provides a detailed analysis of the different assets of wealth that Americans hold based on their relative position:
It might be difficult to know how much wealth your family has, so here is a different way to think about it from Statista:
- 90% own 1 car, 50% own 2 cars (actual average is 1.8 cars per household),
- 50% have a 401K,
- 66% own 1 home, (only 6% own a second home like a condo or lake house).
2. How does your family's wealth compare to the average American? Feel free to comment on any of the above stats, or a combination of them.
For a much more detailed analysis of wealth, see this post from business insider which explains the wealth by demographics like age, race, and two components of social class that we will examine next: education and location.
Social Class Component 3: Education
Without looking, what percentage of U.S. adults do you think have a college degree?
Here is a link to the Census data regarding education where you can search by municipality or zip code to see what the median educational level is.
4. Did you realize that so few people have a bachelor's degree or higher? Does any of this surprise you?
5. Where does your family fall in terms of educational level? The median American educational level is some college, but no degree. Is the educational level in your family higher or lower and by how much?
Parents' educational levels correlate with children's educational attainment. The graph below shows that the less education that parents have, the less education their children obtain. In other words, if parents don't have a college degree, the child is not likely to attain a college degree and visa-versa; parents with an advanced degree are more likely to have children who attain an advanced degree themselves.
Here is a 2011 post from sociological images that has a lot of info showing the connection between your degree and your income, especially that more than any other factor, educational level contributes to lifetime income earnings and the earnings gap gets wider over time.
Besides the likelihood of meeting friends and potential spouses at college, there are specific apps and websites to help matchmake couples from Ivy League+ schools. This 2019 Harvard Gazette article reviews three of them including:
Parent Education = Children's Future Education
Below is another way of showing the educational level of parents (on the left) influences the level of college education their children get (center) and what social class the children end up in (right) from Daniel Laurison on Twitter:
6. What are some conclusions or questions you have about how parent educational level affects children's educational probability?
Education = Income
Not only is education level stratified, but the family's educational level determines, on average what the family's income will be (on average). In other words, the higher your education is, the more money one is likely to earn. Link to College Board 2016 research report here. The graph below shows how median income goes up for each level of education, even if you factor in income taxes (which also go up):
Here is a 2011 post from sociological images that has a lot of info showing the connection between your degree and your income, especially that more than any other factor, educational level contributes to lifetime income earnings and the earnings gap gets wider over time.
Income = test scores
So, not only does more education mean more income, the more income means higher scores on standardized tests (which could mean a better education). See the data below. This link shows that on average, the higher a family's income, the higher the ACT score.
7. What are some of the reasons that higher-income might lead to higher test scores?
Higher Income = More Elite College (from no college all the way to the Ivies)
People from different social classes are more likely to interact together at college. From The Upshot of NY Times, this interactive site allows you to see what percent of students from the top 1% and bottom 60% attend each school of higher education. You can click on the link above to search your own schools and see more data, but below are two images from the link.
First, this image shows in general that the more income a family has (left side y-axis), the more elite the school that their kids attend:
And the list below shows how schools rank in terms of students from the top 1% of income compared to the number of students from the bottom 60%:
Not only is educational level shaped by parents' social class, but even the major that a student chooses is too. This research from Natasha Quadlin shows that the major a student chooses at college is influenced by social class,
"...income gaps between fields are often larger than gaps between those with college degrees and those without them. Natasha Quadlin finds that this gap is in many ways due to differences in funding at the start of college that determine which majors students choose....She finds that students who pay for college with loans are more likely to major in applied non-STEM fields, such as business and nursing, and they are less likely to be undeclared. However, students whose funding comes primarily from grants or family members are more likely to choose academic majors like sociology or English and STEM majors like biology or computer science."
Matchmaking and Education
- BluesMatch, a company based in London that matches Oxford, Cambridge, and Ivy League graduates, said it makes sense that as people experience search fatigue from broad, impersonal online dating pools, they’re drawn to sites that narrow the field by matching users’ interests or backgrounds. “People get tired of using Tinder or Match because there are too many people,” said Law during a Skype chat from London. “And they often don’t have the level of conversation that someone from Oxford or the Ivy League gets excited by.”
- Elegant Introductions out of Miami, are matchmakers for a clientele based in Miami and Boston. Most of their clients, said Gold, are highly educated and professionally successful, are involved in their community, appreciate the arts, and have been screened to make sure they are who they say they are. Applicants have to show proof of an Ivy League degree.
Additionally, if you are interested:
Elite Colleges Constantly Tell Low-Income Students That They Do Not Belong from Clint Smith in the Atlantic.
How Admissions Really Work: If The College Admissions Scandal Shocked You, Read this from NPR.
Paul Tough's book, The Years That Matter Most is a deep-dive sociological look into college and social class. From the NY Times book review,
10. Where do college grads tend to move?
11. How do you think where college grads move affects social class in the U.S.?
How Admissions Really Work: If The College Admissions Scandal Shocked You, Read this from NPR.
There are lots of ways that wealthy families get a boost in the college admissions process. Most are quite legal.
Paul Tough's book, The Years That Matter Most is a deep-dive sociological look into college and social class. From the NY Times book review,
"... today, whether you graduate from college is largely determined by your parents’ income. In the United States, 77 percent of children born into the top income quartile will earn a degree by age 24, but for the bottom quartile that number is a mere 9 percent. The implications are clear: The education system isn’t transforming the lives of those who need it most; it is dispensing ever more opportunity to those who need it least."
Social Class Component 4: Location
The next component of social class is location.
The Median Metro Area
Examining the largest 384 metro areas in the United States, Chicago is the 3rd most populous at 9 million people. There are different ways to measure the median metro area, but regardless of how it’s done, it is substantially smaller than Chicago. Examining the median individual American, they live in a metro area closer in size to the 50th metro region such as Fresno, CA, Grand Rapids, MI, Rochester, NY or Tulsa, OK, just above 1 million people. However, the median metropolitan area is Yakima, WA or Baldwin County, AL. Either way, the typical American lives in a small city - much smaller than the Chicago metropolitan region. And this geographic disparity of location is connected to income and class.
Examining the largest 384 metro areas in the United States, Chicago is the 3rd most populous at 9 million people. There are different ways to measure the median metro area, but regardless of how it’s done, it is substantially smaller than Chicago. Examining the median individual American, they live in a metro area closer in size to the 50th metro region such as Fresno, CA, Grand Rapids, MI, Rochester, NY or Tulsa, OK, just above 1 million people. However, the median metropolitan area is Yakima, WA or Baldwin County, AL. Either way, the typical American lives in a small city - much smaller than the Chicago metropolitan region. And this geographic disparity of location is connected to income and class.
8. What is the size of the median metro area in the United States?
9. How does our metro area compare to the median?
Location and where College Grads Move
WSJ data shows where college grads are likely to move after they graduate. Here is one example of where LUC grads move:
This post explains more detail about the WSJ data above and how location and education are related.
Try to make your own conclusions about the data:
11. How do you think where college grads move affects social class in the U.S.?
Educational Attainment in America Map
Another source of evidence regarding social class, education and location is The American Community Survey Map (pictured below).
The map shows that there are clusters of people with the same levels of education living together. Take a look at the clusters of green and blue near cities from this zoomed out perspective of America:
Here is northern Illinois - note the clusters of different levels of education:
And Chicago's northside shows that educational segregation on a neighborhood level:
12. Where do you see segregation by educational attainment?
This article by Business Insider highlights some conclusions about educational segregation based on the interactive version of the map above.
Home Price, Location and Social Class
The price of a home depends on a lot more than the physical structure of the home.
From Business Insider, the average home price varies considerably from state to state. For example, Zillow’s Home Value Index (2023) puts the median home value in the US at $350,113. But West VA was the lowest with an average home value of $158K and Hawaii was the highest at $971K followed by California at $760K. The value for Illinois was $255K. Location matters.
Extra Data about Home Price:Location and home price:City-data has census data by census track including the average home price (as well as income and other data).
13. How do you think your home's value compares to the average home price? (Remember from the wealth section above, the average American owns a home.)
Location and health
Research from Melody Goodman, an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis presented at Harvard School of Public Health shows that zipcode is a better predictor for health than genetic code:
Residents to the north of Delmar are less likely to have a bachelor’s degree and more likely to have heart disease or cancer.
More recently, Damon Tweedy from Health Affairs summarizes new research from David Ansell, senior vice president and associate provost for community health equity and a professor of medicine at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center,
Headlines portray Chicago, Illinois, as the epicenter of urban gun violence. But most premature deaths among Chicago’s black residents are caused by heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. In his new book... Ansell asserts that structural violence is the true cause of the dramatic...differences in death rates and life expectancy across Chicago neighborhoods. According to Ansell, this form of violence—rooted in past and present social, economic, and racial inequality—saps the lives of residents in poor neighborhoods and results in the death gap. Chicago, in this narrative, is a microcosm of America.
In this new book, he takes a larger view, focusing on how factors outside of the health care system—neighborhood segregation, in particular—affect health.
And Clint Smith, a Washington DC teacher explains in his slam poem the ways that location affects his students. As you watch, make a list of the ways that location affects them:
Location is also related to mobility:
An online data tool called Opportunity Atlas finds a strong correlation between where people are raised and their chances of achieving the American dream.
Here is an NPR piece explaining it.
Here is the NY Times Upshot explaining it.
Opportunity Insights provides data about how neighborhoods shape residents' life chances.
Here are maps showing the wide variation of opportunity from the national to the local levels:
This report from NPR's Planet Money details how where you grow up can affect your income later in life.
And here is a video and stats from CNN Money that show how where you grow up limits or benefits you.
- What does the median or average American look like in terms of social class?
- How does this compare to your own unique experience(s)?
- How do all of these components of social class connect to each other to either limit or advantage those in them?
Social Class Component 5: Prestige and Power
What is the median prestige job in this data?
Where does your family's prestige rating fall compared to this?
Power, according to Max Weber, is the ability to impose one's will on others. Weber focused on three ways that power shows up in everyday life:
Power, according to Max Weber, is the ability to impose one's will on others. Weber focused on three ways that power shows up in everyday life:
- Traditional authority - power because of social or cultural tradition like royalty or religious leaders
- Rational-Legal authority - power from law and legitimacy of the state such as judges and police
- Charismatic authority - power that comes from personal qualities that create influence over people such as Kim Kardashian or Michael Strehan
One example of power is how the world's most powerful leaders gather in secret meetings annually to discuss how they can shape policy, economics and laws among other things. One such meeting is the American Enterprise Institute is one example of an annual meeting which is a private, off-the-record meeting held every year. Another meeting is the Bilderberg meeting.
Some examples of power are the abilities to keep yourself out of jail, influence politicians and enact laws that you favor:
Some examples of power are the abilities to keep yourself out of jail, influence politicians and enact laws that you favor:
Here is one example from The Daily Show comparing teachers and Wall Street Investors. Can you guess who has the power? Video is available at Youtube here.Here is a link to a Washington Post article explaining that wealthy Americans use their power to create favorable government policies.This 2019 ProPublica report found that the IRS is LESS likely to audit wealthier Americans because it is more costly and difficult.And this article from the NY Times shows that an executive at United Airlines accused of corruption charges was forced to resign. Imagine if a teacher was accused of corruption and was forced to resign. That would be it - out of a job and no compensation. But,United filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday indicating that Mr. Smisek would receive nearly $4.9 million in a separation payment, and 60,000 shares of stock, valued at over $3 million.
Some more local examples of a contrast in power among wealthy and powerful compared to low income and powerless:
Compare this story to the cheating scandal in the video above.
Choose one of the examples above. Which did you choose and what is the power being exerted?
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