The American class system
|
who belongs to |
Name of the class |
the characteristic |
|
-power elite: *multi millionaires *business inventors *financiers -high-prestige politicians -military leaders |
The ruling class |
-top of America's society -a "good" family name, which could be traced back to the WASPs* -social, political and financial power until today |
|
-professionals (doctors, lawyers) -business executives -managers -technologists |
The upper middle class |
-people who are wealthy and often have a doctor's degree |
|
-schoolteachers -social workers -small businessmen -shopkeepers -white-collar workers (clerks) -blue-collar workers (skilled craftsmen) |
The middle class |
-backbone of the nation -quantitatively and qualitatively the most powerful force -have improved their economic situation -obtained skilled jobs -moved into well-to-do-suburbs -a decade after the violent sixties a third of the Blacks managed it to belong to this class |
|
-assembly-line factory workers -deliverymen -truck drivers -miners -janitors -shop assistants |
The working class |
-regularly employed or semi-skilled workers |
|
-unemployed -casual labourers -migrant farm workers -the poor |
The poor class/ the underclass |
-looked down by everybody else -live in miserable conditions, in shabby "downtown" areas -mostly Blacks or Hispanics |
