1. Sociology 1201 Social Class and Families  Upper class: 1-2%. As much of their income from investments as wages. Exclusive neighborhoods, schools, clubs. Elaborate social code.  Key challenge: social reproduction (passing position to next generation)  Amerco: top managers  Little good research: why?

2. Sociology 1201 Upper middle class  Professional and managerial positions, mostly in large bureaucracies. College and professional degrees.  20-25% of the population.  The rest of Amerco’s management class  Key challenge: social reproduction and upward mobility

3. Sociology 1201 The working class majority  Lower middle class –White collar jobs that do not require a college degree –Small business –25-30% of population.  Amerco support staff  Key challenges  Working class –Blue collar and service jobs that do not require a college degree –25-30% of popul. Amerco factory workers Often just one lay-off or one divorce away from poverty

4. Sociology 1201 Poverty class  Government poverty line around $18,000 for family of 4  Majority work full-time, although very vulnerable to layoffs  High proportion of single parent families  Key challenge:

5. Sociology 1201 Income Fifths: 2001 Top fifth 47.7% of all income Second fifth 22.9% Middle fifth 15.4% Fourth fifth 9.7% Bottom Fifth 4.2%

6. Sociology 1201 Trends  Top fifth has dramatically increased its share in the last 30 years and especially the last 15  Second fifth holding its own  Other 3/5 losing income share and it would be much worse were it not for the growth of two-wage earner families

7. Sociology 1201 Inequality  Wealth is even more unequally divided than income –1/3 of wealth belongs to the top 1% –1/3 to the next 9% –1/3 to the other 90%  Globalization and deindustrialization (2.7 million factory jobs lost from 2000-2003)

8. Sociology 1201 Inequality II  Do we need this very high level of inequality to motivate the most able people to train for and conscientiously fill the most important positions? (functionalism)  Or is it that wealthy Americans have so much power that they can just keep adding more privilege for themselves and their children? (conflict theory)

9. Sociology 1201 Social class & parenting Annette Lareau: Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life Qualitative research: interviews plus 60 hours of observation with 12 families, upper middle class and working class, black and white Concerted cultivation vs. natural development

10. Sociology 1201 Work vs. home  Context for the patterns Hochschild discovers at Amerco  Family values, but not really  Increased hours of work per week not only at Amerco but through much of the economy. Why?  Why does home seem like work and work like home, for many of these workers?