Recent Major Social Changes in the U.S.

 

 

Economy

 

1. Labor Force Changes 

 

% employed in tertiary sector increases with industrialization

 

Today more of the U.S. population employed in tertiary than in primary or secondary labor markets.

 

Tertiary = service occupations, such as clerks, waitresses, teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc..  Not blue collar or manual work.

 

Why? 

 

Economy largely driven by consumption, not production.  Due to efficiency and effectiveness of primary and secondary sectors.

 

  • Need to replace goods and services.

 

  • Mass production requires mass consumption

 

  • Effective advertising.

 

  • People of all classes consume same goods and services:   Cars, Levi’s, shoes, Food, TV’s, etc.

 

  • People buy until they have no disposable income left, regardless of income levels.

 

  • Recreational time has increased with industrialization.  Now shopping is a recreational activity.  Example – outlet malls, Internet shopping

 

TV time: TV’s primary function is to market goods and services. 

Selling products to upper 40% of households is lucrative business. 

          They purchase 60% of products.

          Examples – luxury car ads in prime time.

 

2. Conspicuous Consumption

 

Luxury cars (Hummer), huge houses, yachts, gilded plates, military ashtrays and toilet seats, etc…

 

Pets – 15 Billion per year (more than GNP of most small countries)

 

Weddings: spend more on wedding than on college education

 

 

3. Compensatory Consumption

 

“Starter” jackets

Cars

·        Interest rates

·        Weekly payments to used dealerships

·        Insurance rates higher

 

 

4. Social Class

 

As industrialization, urbanization, modernization increases, most stratification systems move from caste (economic status determined by birth) to class (economic status determined by achievement)

 

Historically, in class systems the gap between the have’s and have not’s (rich and poor) decreases.  This is due to the:

·         need for more labor,

·         more specialized skills,

·         technological changes lead to more and new jobs and the need for more skills,

·         redistribution of wealth in most modernized societies.

 

 

However, recently, due to the forces of globalization, the gap is increasing in industrial societies.

 

·         Richest 20% of US households own 45% of nation’s wealth

Poorest 20% have 4% share of nation’s wealth (example, land)

 

·         Top 20% is getting richer, while the middle and lower classes are getting poorer.

·        People are working more hours

·        Real income has fallen

·        Takes 2 incomes today to make what 1 income made 50 years ago.

·         Class segregation Increasing:  Examples -- schools, gated communities

 


Why is the Gap widening?

 

·         Not as many technological changes as in 20th century – not as many new occupations, skills, etc.  Exception = computer related jobs.

 

·         Positions imposed by structure of competition -- someone must lose.

 

·         Corporate power and wealth;

·         Wealth = homes, land, boats, planes, cars, companies, retirement, stock

·         Golden parachutes vs. laid off labor

·         Average income of CEO is 3 million per year plus stock options, substantial benefits. Median income of labor is $25,000

 

 

5. 20th Century attempts to improve class inequality

 

 

a.  Wealth redistribution: 

Why we redistibute wealth


Income and wealth data

 

Current issues in wealth redistribution:

·        Proposed Tax Changes

·        Proposed Savings Changes

·        North Carolina Sales Tax Increase

 

 

b.    education

c.     subsidized health care

d.    disability

e.    shorter work week

f.       minimum wage

         

In the U.S., family social class still the primary predictor of adult social class. Family social class drives occupational choice/location of adult children.

 

Social mobility has not changed in decades in the U.S.

 

Mobility still greater in U.S. than in any other country in the world. Followed by Japan. 




Politics

 

Power = use of influence, authority, control, force to get what you or what a group wants.

 

As industrialization increases, power becomes less concentrated.   Access to power (positions of power) opens.

 

  • Masses become involved in the political process via voting.

 

  • Ownership of companies more dispersed via stocks.  (But ruling percentage less dispersed.)

 

  • Ruling class still tend to be the most wealthy in society:

 

·         Takes $ to run for office

·         Money buys influence over political process via lobbyists.    

 

·         Money buys influence over communities – example, Alabama and BMW plant.

 

·         Interlocking directorates/power elites – example, energy crisis

 

·         This is why the only way to affect social change if you are not wealthy is via groups – need to organize and mobilize groups.  

 

 

 


Family

 

1.  Historical changes

 

No longer primarily an economic unit. Now primarily a unit of consumption.

 

No longer primary source of protection – now police, schools, and medical professionals provide major sources of protection.

 

No longer primary source of religious activity.  Now people go to churches, synagogues and mosques once a week for an hour or 2.

 

No longer a primary source of education. Now children go to schools outside of the home and neighborhood.

 

No longer primary regulator of reproduction.  People have control of reproduction with birth control so don’t have to have the benefit of marriage to have sex. 

 

 

2. Current Trends

 

For data go to GSS Codebook

·         Age at first wed increasing

·         Never married’s increasing

·         Single households increasing

·         # of children decreasing

·         age at 1st child increasing

·         # of no children increasing (DINK)

·         Cohabitation increasing

 

·        Many of the above trends are due to more women gaining professional working and higher education and due to adults caring for elderly parents who are living longer

 

 

Divorce:

 

Divorce rate increasing (highest among people who wed at young age; still harder to get a divorce today than it is to buy a gun). Why?

 

  • Change in functions of the family
  • Increase in job opportunities for women
  • Easier to get (legal barriers removed, cost removed, though still expensive)
  • Fewer social sanctions

 


Single Parenting:

 

·        Numbers increasing

 

·        As divorce increases and # single parents increases, may see change in culture – “illegitimacy” just as we did with “divorcee’

 


Sex:

 

·        Age at 1st sex (most data is on heterosex) decreasing (16.6 boys, 17.4 girls median ages)

 

·        Teen pregnancy increasing (40% White, 63% Black by age 20). Highest in the world (1 out of every 10 girls)

 

·        Teen birth rates increasing

 

·        Highest abortion rates (most though are not young girls)

 

·        In light of these findings, “just say no” campaigns are highly suspicious.  Need sex education, access to birth control.

 

 

·        # of sexual partners decreasing

 

·        monogamy increasing (married monogamous are most satisfied with relationships)

 

·        These changes due to increase in sexually transmitted diseases.  1 out of every 100 people is HIV Positive. 2.4 million new infections per year. 

 

 


 

Education

 

Education used to be for the elite only.

 

Industrialization caused the need for an educated or skilled workforce.

 

80% of U.S. population has a H.S. degree

20% have college degree

 

 

1. Problems in Public Education

 

·         Population growth lead to higher #’s in public schools.

·        Higher costs to educate

·        Change in age ratios across time

·        Infrastructure unable to respond to quick pop changes

 

·         Diluted H.S. degrees

 

·        A H.S. degree used to provide skills and training for successful careers. Now must go to college and even seek graduate education.

 

·        Functional illiterates

·        Curriculum Wars

·        Diversity

·        Classics, math and science

·        Information Overload 

·        Test scores declining

·        Student apathy

§        Occupational prospects

§        Family changes

 

2. Problems in College Education

 

·        Curriculum Wars

§        No standardization of product

§        Quality controls

 

·        Diluted degrees – 4 year liberal arts degree more of a vo-tech degree now

 

·        Credentialism -- Bachelor’s degree is a gatekeeper.

§        Employer side

§        Student side

 

·        College culture change

·        Working part-time jobs

·        Consumption

·        Abseentism

·        Poor performance

·        Full-time Student and Parent

 

·        Faculty Discontent

·        Market forces

·        Salary low, benefits low

·        Tuition vs Real cost of education

1.    http://www.uncwil.edu/finaid/coa02_03.htm

2.    http://people.uncw.edu/lowery/

3.    http://www.uncwil.edu/facsen/minutes/Jan02.htm

 

 

·        Part-time instructors

·        Instructors vs Professors

·        Research to subsidize tax dollars