Emerging Issues: Growing Inequality Amongst America's Social Classes

With the closing of the century's first decade, we've encountered new familial structures and values, styles and fashions, political figures, and finally, an increasingly stagnant economy and financial situation. The downturn of America's economy has brought a significant amount of national debt, a slower housing market, lower average incomes, and an increasing disparity between the rich and the poor. This obvious discrepancy between the wealthy and those who struggle from day to day has created a mass conflict resulting in friction and strain felt by more than 2/3 of America's population. Americans have always acknowledged the existence of various social levels in the country, but it has become more of an issue recently as individuals feel less likely or less able to change their situation and escape from the lower tier of society. Social class is determined largely by income, but is also influenced by occupation, education, and location. With education becoming more expensive and therefore unattainable and jobs becoming harder to find, people feel as though they are stuck in the current class they are in. The full effect of the income discrepancy is felt when it was found that ten percent of America's population carry over sixty percent of the money in the country. In the past, sociologists have described the class system as being divided into several different levels including: upper, upper middle, middle, lower middle, and lower class. Recently, however, the conflict between rich and poor has left the class system with a defined upper and lower class with very few distinctions in-between. The upper class has the ability to exercise enormous control throughout society, yet they constitute the smallest proportion of individuals. On the other end of the spectrum, the lower middle and  lower class is composed of the largest group of people who are generally poorly educated, unemployed, or working above the average amount of hours in a week.

This blatant disparity between America's rich and poor is a crucial emerging issue because it highlights the economic downturn that has plagued our country for several years now. The differing social classes have an influence on the next presidential election, job creation, and various societal things like culture and tradition. It creates conflict and tension between individuals and families and inhibits America from functioning to its full capacity.

("Class war," 2009)

Sociology is important in analyzing the current issues surrounding social class structure as it lays out and explains the class stratification as a dynamic, ever-changing process that involves the interplay of access to resources, judgements about different groups, and the exercise of power by a small subset of the population. Sociologists help to clearly define the terms of each level of the hierarchal class structure and their relationships to each other as a whole. The various classes are discussed in detail below as defined by "Sociology: the Essentials".

Upper Class- includes individuals who control vast amounts of wealth and power in the American political and economic sysems. The upper class is comprised of about ten percent of the population but owns over sixty percent of the country's money. These individual range from those who have held wealth for generations to those who have only recently become rich. Regardless, the elite exercise enormous control throughout society.

Middle Class- the majority of Americans classify themselves as middle class, although many would be better suited in a different hierarchal level. Known as the working class, these individuals work in skilled trades or low-income bureaucratic work including secretaries, teachers, or police officers. They generally have a medium to low income, education, and occupational prestige.

Lower Class- comprised primarily of displaced or poor individuals who generally have little formal education and are unemployed or working for very low wages. Minorities and women form the majority of this class. An average of six percent of all working class people fall in this category. Lower class individuals hold little to no influence in America's political and economic system yet they make up an ever-growing subset of the population.

(Lendman, 2011)

The following news article entitled, "Survey Finds Rising Perception of Class Tension", directly applies to the issue discussed above as it mentions the rising strain and friction felt between members of the upper and lower social classes of America's modern society due to the stark differences in wage/income and lifestyle.

(Tavernise, 2012)

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/us/more-conflict-seen-between-rich-and-poor-survey-finds.html