Broadly speaking, the United States aspires to be an
egalitarian country with
social mobility; the
American Dream includes the idea from the
Declaration of Independence that "
all men are created equal" and have the "
unalienable right" to "
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness". The phrase "
second-class citizen" has a strong negative connotation in national politics. In practice,
socioeconomic mobility in the United States is relatively low, compared to Nordic countries and Canada, and
income inequality in the United States is relatively high. Educational attainment and income are
strongly correlated, but relatively low funding for
K-12 schools in poor neighborhoods raises concerns about a
cycle of poverty. These apparent contradictions lead to divergent views on whether American society is divided into distinct classes or should be analyzed that way. According to a 2021 study, in the United States, 50% of a father's income position is inherited by his son. In contrast, the amount in Norway and Canada is less than 20%. Moreover, in the U.S. 8% of children raised in the bottom 20% of the income distribution are able to climb to the top 20% as adults, while the figure in Denmark is nearly double at 15%. According to an academic study on why Americans overestimate class mobility, "research indicates that errors in social perception are driven by both informational factors—such as the lack of awareness of statistical information relevant to actual mobility trends—and motivational factors—the desire to believe that society is meritocratic." Explanations for the relatively low level of social mobility in the US include: the better access of
affluent children to superior schools and preparation for schools, which is important in an economy where pay is tilted toward educated workers; high levels of
immigration of unskilled laborers and low rate of
unionization, which leads to lower wages among the least skilled; public health problems, such as
obesity and diabetes, which can limit education and employment; the sheer size of the income gap between the rich which makes it harder to climb the proverbial income ladder when the rungs are farther apart; and poverty, since those with low income have significantly lower rates of mobility than middle and higher income individuals.
Studies In 2012,
Charles Murray described what he saw as the economic divide and social bifurcation of Americans that has occurred since 1960 in his book,
Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010. Murray described diverging trends between upper and lower class white Americans in the half century, after the death of
John F. Kennedy. He focused on white Americans to argue that economic decline in that period was not experienced solely by
minorities, whom he brings into his argument in the last few chapters of the book. He argued that class strain had cleaved white Americans into two distinct, highly segregated strata: "an upper class, defined by educational attainment, and a new lower class, characterized by the lack of it." Much of his argument is centered on a notion of self-selective sorting that began in the 1960s and 1970s, when people overwhelmingly began
marrying and
living in areas surrounded largely by people of similar socioeconomic characteristics, leading to not only an exacerbation of existing economic divides, but an unprecedented socio-cultural divide that had not existed before in America. French economist
Thomas Piketty specializes in
economic inequality by taking a historic and statistical approach. Piketty's 2019 book
Capital and Ideology argues that inequality is a social phenomenon, driven by human institutions. Institutional change, in turn, reflects the ideology that dominates society: "Inequality is neither economic nor technological; it is ideological and political." In one example, Piketty highlights how during the
Belle Époque (1871-1914) in the
French Third Republic, economic inequality was just as high as during the
Ancien régime before the
French Revolution, despite the monarchy being abolished and France industrializing. It was only after the world wars that France adopted a
welfare state. In 2019,
Daniel Markovits published the book
The Meritocracy Trap, in which he argued that meritocracy was the center of rising
economic inequality and social and political dysfunction. Markovits argued that "meritocracy excludes people outside of the elite, excludes middle class people and working class people from schooling, from good jobs, and from status and income, and then insults them by saying that the reason they’re excluded is that they don’t measure up, rather than that there’s a structural block to their inclusion." The minority of individuals who manage to overcome structural conditions and achieve upward class mobility are used as examples to support the idea that meritocracy exists, which is an example of
survival bias.
Social norms Once defined, social classes can be considered to feature their own sub-cultures, including different ways of socializing children. A recent increase in residential class segregation and the overall tendency of individual to associate mostly with those of equal standing as themselves has further strengthened class differences. Parents from the
professional class tend to raise their children to become curious, independent thinkers, while working-class parents raise their children to have a more communal perspective, with a strong respect for authority. Middle-class parents tend to emphasize internal standards and values, while working-class parents emphasize external values. Sociologist
Dennis Gilbert uses a list of values identified by
Melvin Kohn to be typical of the
professional middle and working class. Middle-class parents' values for their children and themselves included: "Consideration of Others, Self-Control, Curiosity, Happiness, Honesty, Tolerance of
Nonconformity, Open to Innovation, Self-Direction." This contrasted with surveyed working class individuals, who reported: "Manners, Obedience, Neatness, Cleanliness, Strong Punishment of Deviant Behavior, Stock to Old Ways, People not Trustworthy, Strict Leadership" as values for themselves and their children. There is a strong correlation between these values and the occupational activities of the respondents. The job characteristics of middle class respondents included:
"Work Independently, Varied Tasks, Work with People or Data," versus working-class parents of reported
"Close Supervision and Repetitive Work." Gender roles are also viewed differently by those in the higher and lower social classes.
Middle class individuals, who were more open towards "nonconformity" and emphasized individual self-direction as well as critical thinking, were also less stringent in their application of gender roles. Working class individuals, on the other hand, emphasized gender roles. While working-class people have more and more assimilated to middle class culture regarding their view and application of gender roles, differences remain. Professional class people are more likely to have an
egalitarian distribution of work in their household with both spouses being equals in heterosexual marriages. According to Dennis Gilbert, "College life, generally a prologue to upper-middle class careers, delays marriage and encourages informal, relatively egalitarian association between men and women." ==Academic models==