11 Characteristics of Social Class

John Spacey, May 29, 2020

A social class is a population grouping based on economic status and position in a society. The following are the basic characteristics of social class.

Capital

Capital is property that has potential to produce future value such as land, buildings, equipment, machines, vehicles, software and intellectual property. The upper classes of society are primarily defined by their ownership of capital. This allows these classes to support a lavish lifestyle that is not based on the output of their labor but rather returns from capital.

Labor

Classes that don't own capital depend on their labor. In many cases, this means working for those who own capital creating a hierarchical power structure in a society.

Disposable Income

Where pay for labor is high, workers enjoy disposable income. This is important as it allows families to make improvements in their life and build up capital. Disposable income is the defining characteristic of the middle class.

Leisure Class

Historically, the upper class had far more leisure time than the other classes as they do not depend on their labor for survival. As such, leisure was associated with wealth with activities such as afternoon tea that intentionally burned the core hours of the day, an unthinkable luxury for the other classes. This pattern persists to this day as the upper and middle class have the expectation of holidays, vacations, hobby time and family time where the working poor may struggle each day just to do the things they need to do to survive.

Quality of Life

Generally speaking, capital and disposable income allow individuals and families to make improvements in their quality of life. For example, purchasing homes that are further from major sources of air pollution such as highways and ports.

Education

Education is often the key to sustaining a families position in a social class. For example, elite universities signal inclusion in the upper class. University education is also required to join many middle class professions that generate discretionary income. Likewise, training such as apprenticeships may be a route to the middle class.

Social Mobility

Social mobility is the degree to which a society provides opportunities for people to improve their economic situation such that they may join a higher social class. For example, a society that makes elite universities free and ensures that admissions are based on merit would have higher social mobility than a society where these institutions are expensive with preferred routes of admission for the upper class such as an escalator school.

Culture

Social classes develop their own culture through an ongoing process of shared experience. This can include values, language, norms, expectations, symbols, myths, stories and pastimes that allow people to identify with each other as a class.

Social Status

Social status is the respect that an individual enjoys from others in a particular context. Adherence to the ideals and norms of a class culture can earn an individual respect from their peers. There are many types of social status and it is a mistake to equate social status and wealth.

Class Consciousness

Class consciousness is the degree to which individuals identify with their socioeconomic class. In some cases, there is low unity at the class level where people focus on other aspects of identity such as religion, ethnicity, gender, culture and lifestyle.

Politics

Where class consciousness is strong the largest classes by population can dominate politics to create policies and direct the resources of a society in ways that benefit them. For example, a social market economy is largely structured to benefit the working and middle class with benefits such as healthcare, education and a social safety net that can theoretically be funded with taxation of the upper class and related entities such as corporations.