Most sociologists agree with Weber’s social class ideas defining it as a group of people with similar power, wealth, and prestige. Joseph Kahl and Dennis Gilbert’s model of social class stratifies the U.S. population into six different groups. The underclass is the lowest one that consists of low-income households characterized by a lack of education, skills, substance abuse, or the presence of disabilities (Gilbert, 2018). The working poor is people who are more actively engaged in the labor force. Nevertheless, they receive inferior wages that see their income below the poverty level due to a lack of education or system-driven inequalities. For instance, many African Americans and Hispanics represent the working poor because of social inequalities and predominantly service occupations (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018). The next one is the working class represented by high school education individuals who earn for life at factories. They comprise a large share of voters that play an important role in the nation’s politics.
Craftspeople, supervisors, and lower managers form the lower-middle class that is the densest social group in the U.S. Most of them have white-collar jobs, college education, and enjoy the average standard of living. In its turn, the upper-middle class consists of highly-educated individuals representing middle management and professionals (Gilbert, 2018). They usually have high work autonomy and a decent salary. According to the model, the capitalist class is situated at the top of the hierarchy. Politicians, celebrities, and top-level executives are the most known and wealthy people in the country. In general, the lower classes receive worse medical care, have more mental health issues, are less educated, and their marriages are more likely to fail. On the contrary, higher classes have full access to medical care, are better educated, and have greater control of their lives. However, the upper-class parents fail to be role models for their children, who consequently have distorted images of the world.
References
Gilbert, D. (2018). The American class structure in an age of growing inequality. (10th ed.). Sage.
U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (2018). A profile of the working poor, 2016 (Report). Web.