10 Notes

Chapter 10: Comparing Systems of Stratification Francis Batac 10.21.08. Support in the death penalty is very high. Support of religiosity is very high. Politicians are more followers than leaders for this. Hunting • • •

and Gathering Societies (most common form of “Simple Society”) Death was the major fact of life. Experienced chronic famines and only occasional feasts. Stratified? Not much in terms of $. (From Weber’s point of view). o Age and sex o Certainly stratified in terms of power and prestige (status) • Small, poor. Threatened societies -> little stratification AGRARIAN Societies- live by farming • Has the ability to create permanency with AGRICULTURE o Construct better shelters and homes Allowed for surplus of food production  Surplus = producing more than you need yourself • The capacity for labor to produce surplus was the basis for inequalities Surplus is equal to Economic Stratification. • Why?

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o Someone “owns” the field  Division of labor  There is power and status differences  Some would own, some would sell; there is an occupational prestige for hunting and gathering societies. Everyone would have been doing the same thing! Some different labor roles are present. Surplus is equal to the specialization and urbanization. o It freed up others to think, invent, cure illness, etc. do other things

Surplus supports a military, which is controlled by those in power o Specialization = training and weapons, greater ability to exploit • Haves educate themselves- time to study the heavens, compose poems, etc o Cultural wall limits upward mobility Industrial Societies is equivalent to less stratification. • Marx witness the Industrial revolution. He saw the growth of cities, the growth of wealth, production etc… and when he saw inequality involve about of the industrial revolution, he predicted that the gap between rich and poor would go so wide to the most extreme. At the beginning the gap was present however… TOTALLY WRONG. • Industrial societies = less stratification! o Industrialization = increase in level of skill / training required for the “average” job  Less replaceable  Less replaceability = greater power  Industrialization “forced” upward mobility  In South Africa, there was a caste system. You had certain categories in South Africa who were not allowed to have those positions. Industrialization required certain categories to open and force out the caste system and put in the jobs that required skills and training.

Industrialization = decline in influence of ascription (in theory, societies can afford education for all) Correlations between stratification and industrialization (right out of the book) 

Level of economic development Tv sets per 1000 population Per capita gross domestic product Telephones per 1000 population

Correlations with % of total national income going to richest 10% of families -.61 -.65 -.64 -.66

Average Life expectancy

-.56

SOC INQ= find measures of inequality in developing countries Mobility in the US • Freedom and American Dream = Hard work can turn anyone into anything he/she wants- True? Not necessarily. • Mobility patterns in US similar to other industrialized (Lipset and Bendix study in book) o Some evidence that big jumps are more common in the US (than those in Western Europe) • Race and Class matter less than they used to, but they still matter o Important we don’t forget this  

Remember the “lobster-lunch” kids Connections and all, still matter when you go to college.

10.24.08. Status Attainment Model (Blau and Duncan) • Strategy for studying intergenerational mobility patterns developed in the 1960s o The original study conducted by US Census Bureau o Main finding from original study  Status of father’s occupation is correlated with status of son’s  But not as much as people thought (r = .4)  Father’s status affects son’s through education  Why fathers and sons? This would have worked to study women in the 1960s  Most likely to study because they both worked  Primary impact: is through EDUCATION • What this means is that your parents in their occupational status and resources and education… the access through education by parents influences and affects your status Education is the Key • Should the rich and poor have equal access? • Do Rich and Poor have equal access? o Debate in Malibu

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o Webster has so much money coming in with all celebrity backing. o But what about inner-city schools in LA? o They tried putting money earned from Malibu and redistributing it to all schools Will $$$ save the day ? o Not likely… but not a bad place to start o Home situation still a powerful predictor of school success  Just the question, “do you parents read to you?” just that one simple issue is a powerful predictor in doing

well in school. Interesting studies from Chapter 10 • Mare and Tzeng (no longer discussed in Stark)—advantage to kids if parents older o Age of father correlates with education and occupational prestige  The older you are when you have children, the more likely they are to attain occupational prestige in life  If you took 2 fathers with exact status, but one is older then the other, age seems to matter because it’s a maturity issue  AGE MATTERS for fathers as they raise their children o Effects remains even if we control for education, money, occupation o Older parents more mature, better parents • Porter: Replication of Blau and Duncan in Canada o Remarkably, correlation between father’s occupational prestige and son’s = .4 (this is your magic number) o Correlation between son’s education and son’s occupational prestige = .6 (Same as US) Summary of Chap 9 and 10 • People vary in their degree of property ($), power, prestige (status) (Weber’s 3Ps)

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Stratification is inevitable partly because stratification is functional; some positions are more important, less replaceable o But Conflict theory also equally important  People will tend to act in self-interest: leads to exploitation, increasing inequality  Will tend to- this does not mean that you and I have to always act in self-interest Conclusions continued • Simple societies, agrarian, industrialized • Ascription (race, class, gender, etc.) related to “life chances but less so in industrialized societies o Throughout much of human history, ascription THE determinant (CASTE)  Correlation between father’s occupational status and son’s about .4 in United States What will the world do to you? • Perrin’s opinion: no extra charge o Marxism cannot work because  Stratification is functional- replace ability does explain stratification  People will not work as hard for the common good as they will for themselves  Government = power… tend to use power in selfinterest o But capitalism is not without its own problems  We live in a world where to some degree we judged by how much we produce, how much we make  We are also encouraged to look out for #1?  Marx warned of what capitalism does to interpersonal relationships- the degree to which relationships are defined by how much I can get from Francis !  Ex. When you vote, do you vote self-interest?  A: Goes both ways World is divided into two kinds of people? • Those who return their shopping carts, those who do not?

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Those who defend the weaker (or younger or poorer or) and those who take advantage of the weaker (or…) Those who treat the people “below” them with disrespect (and the people “above” with respect) Arthur Miller play, All My Sons o If a man like that could do a think ike that then, anyone is capable of doing anything? o The point of a play: how can this good and honest man end up doing violations for profit (knowing somewhere down the road, it would cause death)? If he can do it, then anyone can do anything. We will be put into positions that we are Power in the example of Jesus- love your neighbor as yourself!

Why does Professor look so sharp today? 10/11/2008 19:44:00 10.21.08 Chapter 10 Convo on Death Penalty • Opinion on death penalty • There are some sociology in there, but there can be some discussion right now. • This is my convo a bit of a sermon. • Out of my comfort zone b/c o We professors don’t typically advocate o I am not a theologian o I have never been a victim of a violent crime; nor has anyone in my family o We must approach topic with compassion to victims, victim families… and with humility What would Jesus drive? • It’s a silly question. How would Jesus answer… • General social survey… “Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder?” o American public? o 1976- 64 % o 1993- 80% o 2006- 69% o Both McCain and Obama support this! What do we know from the Bible?

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Did the death penalty exist? Is there any indication that Jesus tried to influence political powers to abolish the death penalty? o Matthew 5:7 Matt 5:38-45 (Leviticus 24:17-21)- Love your enemies as yourself. • Not a political statement • Challenging attitude that leads to the death penalty • We ignore this passage? o Eric Liddell John 8:3-11 • If anyone with you is without sin, be the one to stone the woman. • Doodling on the ground • Again, a chance to explicitly challenge death penalty and he does not do so • Posing a challenge to us? o Most powerful passage … DP… “How can you believe this stuff?” • Redemption (Les Miserables) • Forgiveness • Compassion • Love your neighbor as yourself • Justice for the poor • So what did Jesus write in the sand? (Leviticus 20:10)

o Pro-death side stating: kill all adulterers o Defenders acknowledge that he Bible condemns personal revenge, vengeance o But they make distinction between personal and state justice o Desire for vengeance (“justice”) driving the DP? o Do we Christians believe in redemption?  Only for those who “stole a loaf of bread” Hugh McCutcheon- expressed forgiveness for the killer of his father “Christian nation.” • 95% believe in God • 20-40% attend church weekly • Our political candidates Compare this to “secular” Europe Why is it WE who have the death penalty? “Do you favor or oppose the death penalty for persons convicted of murder?” “When ‘disapprove’ goes over 50%, our politicians will follow” Finally... • Do you favor or oppose the death penalty? • Does the death penalty deter?

Grading 10/11/2008 19:44:00 Warning: 20-25 people dropping the class. Test will be harder because you won’t have people pulling the mean down. OH NO! But the good students stay, bad students leave, that affects the rest of you. Average Raw score = 55 / 70 Mean =78/79%

71 + 92 + 94 + 94+ = 341 341/ 4 = ~89+%

What should my costume be for 10/31? 10/11/2008 19:44:00 …… Pirate, ARR Dr. Perrin?

Video Clip/ Dr. Seuss

10/11/2008 19:44:00

Daily Show Clip with President Bush • If, If, If… Would things like parents’ status get into different hightier colleges? • The left had ended up writing a document to fabricate and destroy Bush’s image Yertle the Turtle • What’s the point? o Yertle serves a function, but Dr. Seuss is taking a conflict perspective o Yertle in the end was exploited o This is Dr. Seuss’ take on stratification o Even Marxist lens o Yertle fell, and all creatures are free Social Class in the US

10/11/2008 19:44:00