Class Consciousness Essay

The views of Class Consciousness have been a topic of discussion for decades. It has grasped attention in the late 1800 's by the famous philosopher and Sociologist Karl Marx. Karl Marx, just to give some background information, was known for his views on the economy, politics, and Society. Marx believed classes were defined based on relations to the means of their production and capital investments; while others believe it is defined by income, social status, education and occupation. Based on Class categories the textbook says there are 5 categories; Upper class, upper middle, lower middle, working class, and lower class. Although these are the categories of class, most people do not use the same categories to this text. Most people do not …show more content…
The Social Class is broken down into five categories. The first category is upper class. Upper class is the Prestige Investors, heirs, and top of corporate America; it only makes up 1 percent of the population. Wealth is not the only important factor that determines your class; economic capital, Education, and Social status also have a lot to do with social class category. The next Status is Upper middle class. Upper middle class, which is also called new money class, is hard to become a part of because it centers on new money. This class is known to have established money for only one or two generations or so. It makes up 15 percent of the population and is made up of lawyers, politicians, physicians, management, highly educated engineers, and elite college professors. Lower middle class is made up of semiprofessionals which make up 30 percent of the population. Lower Middle Class families are better-off and secure than working class, but they have a lot in common with the working class people, such as less college, or less control over their work. However, it is easy for lower middle class to fall into low class or working class; for example …show more content…
The perception of Society only really sees the rich- which is made up of millions and millions of dollars- the middle class -which in their mind are made up of people who are not struggling and working for their coins- and last but not least the poor- which are usually people without income who struggle from day to day finance problems. Money.USA news.com quotes a social science professor in Northwestern University 's economic department named Robert Gordon saying “"People have only a vague idea of their income, based primarily on their income-tax returns, if they are filers," he says. “If they are not filers, they are in a large lower group that has only a vague idea of what their income is." I believe this to be a strong statement because knowledge about class is missing within the US, and that is why people do not use the same extensive categories the book uses; it’s the lack of