How are social classes defined in the United States?

Question

i am doing a social studies project and that is my questioan and i have no idea where to start and how to make it interesting feel free to give survey questions that i can use to interveiw people on the street- thanks!

Answer 1

Well a good Marxist answer is that social class is defined in the US the same way it is defined anywhere else, by relationship to the means of production. In common usage class often is used simply to mean wealth or income but that is far from exact. Most of us recognize that people can be from upper class backgrounds but not be rich and that a working class person can suddenly get a lot of money but not necessarily be part therefor of the upper class. You could ask people 2 questions "what class do you think you are" and "what is your household's annual income" and see what comes of that. But what you will find is that hardly anyone will say "lower class" or "upper class" but will instead say either "middle class" or "working class". This is a problem of what is called "class consciousness" and how it relates to the objective conditions of class.

Have fun.

Answer 2

They highest is upper class. Then middle then lower. I would ask do you classify yourself and if so what class do you see yourself in. How do you feel about classification. A lot of people don't like to be classified so may not see themselves in a class.

Answer 3

Social classes are defined by your gross income. Example (upper class = $100,000 and up per year; middle class 30,000 to 50,000 per year, and lower class under $30,000 to $0.)