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Class is one of this country’s dirty secrets. In a purportedly classless society, the notion that individual lives are conditioned by their socio-economic class seems positively un-American.
Yet in a period of worsening economic inequality, class now makes itself felt in ways unseen since before World War II.
The impact of class is most palpable not in income or consumption patterns, but in educational trajectories, family life, and the nature of work
Class differences in work patterns are perhaps the most obvious. In the new information and knowledge economy, there are stark differences in employees’ autonomy, work schedules, job security, and pay. Today’s working class adults are far more likely to have unpredictable work schedules and extremely limited savings. The result is exceptional vulnerability to a lay-off, an illness, or a divorce, which can easily result in bankruptcy.
Yet just as important are differences in educational patterns and family life. Working class Americans are far more likely to enroll in two-year colleges and never receive a degree. In the top income quartile, 77 percent eventually get a bachelor’s degree. In the bottom quartile, just 9 percent do.
Working class family relationships are far less stable than those among the more affluent and churn in romantic partners is significantly greater. As a result, family relationships tend to be much more complex.
Divergences in young people’s upbringing have become especially pronounced. Poor women are about five times as likely to have an unintended birth as affluent women. Social commentator Robert Putnam has observed a growing class gap in parents’ time investment in reading, playing, and conversing with children, in expenditures on children and in attending school activities. He’s also identified a growing class gap in high schoolers’ participation in extracurricular activities: sports, clubs, band, music, art, or dance lessons, and volunteer work.
As individuals grow older, as marriages break up, layoffs occur, and health problems mount, social divisions deepen. How individuals cope with these disruptions depends partly on individual psychology—on those “non-cognitive” factors such as resilience, grit, and determination. But class makes a huge difference, since financial resources, access to mental health support, social connections, and embeddedness in a supportive community—all class connected—make coping far easier.
It’s not surprising, then, that poorer adults report higher levels of anger, anxiety, depression, isolation, and pain than those with higher incomes.
