8.5 Conclusion
While the class and racial caste system in the United States limits our potential, it does not have to remain that way. The stratification system is something that was created by people, so it can be altered and challenged by people. Let’s return to the two individuals with very different positions in the stratification system at the beginning of the chapter that had one organization tying them together—Amazon.
Given what we have discussed in this chapter, Jeff Bezos is part of the elite. He has a variety of resources that most of us do not. He also is clearly an owner. In contrast, Derrick Palmer is a worker who does not have much control over his work.
Derrick Palmer and his best friend from the warehouse, Christian Smalls, helped organize the first union at an Amazon warehouse (JFK8 in New York). Smalls, an African American like Palmer, was a high performer on Amazon’s performance metrics and hoped to rise in the company.
Their initial small walkout in the early days of the pandemic resulted in the company forming a reaction team. Amazon’s counsel, in an email accidentally sent to over a thousand people, smeared Smalls as “not smart, or articulate.” An anti-union consultant allegedly called Palmer and Smalls “thugs.” Amazon ultimately fired Smalls (Kantor et al. 2021a, 2021b).
Palmer and Smalls continued their unionization efforts despite the heavy resistance from Amazon. Adopting more of a collectivist organizational structure and working independently of established unions, the leaders used social media and in-person events, such as potlucks and bonfires to build support. In April 2022, the workers at JFK8 voted to unionize. Smalls thanked Jeff Bezos, “because while he was up in space, we were signing people up” (Lyons 2022).
In this chapter, we explored different forms of stratification and how those systems tend to cohere. We then turned to how sociologists have sought to explain stratification and social class. We concluded with a tour of the class structure in the United States. In the next chapter, we will explore gender and how it is intertwined with stratification.
Review of Learning Objectives
Key Terms
- Absolute poverty: an economic condition in which a family or individual cannot afford basic necessities, such as food and shelter, so that day-to-day survival is in jeopardy.
- Caste system: a stratification system based on culture and honor. It is a closed system and has high status consistency.
- Class: a set of people who share similar status based on factors like wealth, income, education, family background, and occupation.
- Class system: a stratification system that is based on social factors and individual achievement. It has some degree of openness.
- Closed system: a stratification system in which people cannot move between different layers.
- Concerted cultivation: a middle-class child rearing technique in which parents actively foster their children’s development.
- Davis and Moore hypothesis: a functionalist theory that argues stratification is universal and necessary.
- Dominant ideology: in Marxist theory, the dominant ideas of a time period. It reflects the interests of the owners and makes what is socially constructed seem natural.
- Income: a person’s wages or investment dividends. Earned on a regular basis.
- Meritocracy: a hypothetical system in which social stratification is determined by personal effort and merit.
- Open system: a stratification system that allows people to move between layers.
- Power elite: the class in command of the major hierarchies and organizations of modern society.
- Relative poverty: an economic condition in which a family or individuals have 50 percent income less than the average median income.
- Social stratification: a society’s categorization of its people into rankings based on factors like wealth, income, education, family background, and power.
- Socioeconomic mobility: the movement of people between classes and occupations.
- Socioeconomic status (SES): an individual’s place within the stratification system.
- Status consistency: the consistency of an individual’s rank across the factors that determine social stratification within a lifetime.
- Status groups: communities based on living a specific lifestyle.
- Status inconsistency: when an individual can have a lot of one type of resource, but not another.
- Wealth: the net value of money and assets a person has. It is accumulated over time.
Discussion Questions
- If you were to update figure 8.2 with contemporary classes in the United States, what classes would you include? What might you say about those classes? Why?
- How would you characterize the stratification system in the United States? What aspects are like a class system? When might it be like a caste system?
- Which explanation of stratification do you find most convincing? Why? How does it align with how you think about social class?
- What are some examples of upper-class institutions in your community? How might they exclude people from different classes?
- Why do you think people tend to idealize the middle class in the United States?
- How does the work of Annette Lareau compare to your upbringing and socialization? What might it miss?
- How is poverty socially patterned? What are some sociological explanations for its causes?
Licenses and Attributions for Conclusion
Open Content, Original
“Conclusion” by Matthew Gougherty is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
“Social Stratification and Class Question Set” was created by ChatGPT and is not subject to copyright. Edits for relevance, alignment, and meaningful answer feedback by Colleen Sanders are licensed under CC BY 4.0.
a set of people who share similar status based on factors like wealth, income, education, family background, and occupation.
a stratification system based on culture and honor. It is a closed system and has high status consistency.
a term that refers to the behaviors, personal traits, and social positions that society attributes to being female or male