American Class System

The implementation of social structure has made, and will continue to make an everlasting impact on the people of this world. The term social structure refers to the framework of class system based upon wealth or economic well-being. The components or classes in this system are general characterized as the upper, middle, and lower classes. History has shown that the emergence and evolution of these classes was during the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution was the time period from the late 1700’s to the early 1800’s in which Europe and America experienced a time of major economic and social changes. The paper will discuss class consciousness as well as how industrialization provided citizens with this ideal within Europe. First, to discuss class consciousness. Class consciousness refers to the ability of an individual to sense their economic standing or well-being in comparison to others in a class system. For example, an individual in today’s economy that has a household income of $40,000 may subsequently sense that their economic standing is that of the Lower Class. Whereas, an …show more content…
During the Industrial Revolution, technological advances in manufacturing technologies, led to the building of many factories to evolve the manufacturing industry. This aided in the creation of new jobs for many educated workers. These jobs included: Engineers and Industrialists. Since these jobs required some education, they created differentiation between workers, thus initiating the emergence of the Middle Class, as known as the Bourgeois Class. Once this differentiation was established, those who were educated were given the opportunity to earn more money. Stearns (2001) found “the nineteenth century was the ‘bourgeois century,’ the age of the middle class, the age of commerce and the pursuit of wealth,” (p. 207). Additionally, the middle class gained some power and influence in the economy. Stearns (2001) found the