Class: A Guide Through the American Status System

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Class: A Guide Through the American Status System is a nonfiction book by Paul Fussell originally published in 1983 by Simon & Schuster, [1] [2] and reissued in 1992. [3]

Contents

Class structure

Fussell argues that social class in the United States is more complex in structure than simply three (upper, middle, and lower) classes. According to Bruce Weber, writing for the New York Times, Fussell divided American society into nine strata — from the idle rich, which he called "the top out-of-sight," to the institutionalized and imprisoned, which he labeled "the bottom out-of-sight." [4]

In summary, Fussell identifies the following nine classes:

Fussell coins the term "Category X" for people who remove themselves from the American class system despite having been born into an identifiable class.

Top

Top out-of-sight are those with immense wealth who live in private luxury and do not interact socially with other classes. Their mansions are situated far from public roads behind high walls, and are thus literally out-of-sight.

Uppers and Upper middles generally do not socialize with Middles, but Middles hope to find them on cruise ship vacations. Uppers and Upper middles do not engage in a lot of creative work or analytical thinking, instead relying on tradition. Uppers live on inherited wealth, while Upper middles include those financially successful through their own work, e.g. movie stars and millionaire entrepreneurs.

Middle

Fussell argues that the American middle class has experienced "prole drift" dragging it downward and effectively joining it to the proletarian class. Whereas a university education used to be rarer and a clear class divider separating middles from the high school education of proles, Fussell reports that the vast proliferation of hundreds of mediocre "universities" in the U.S. has rendered this an ineffective class distinction. (This trend continued long after the book was published: there were 4,298 degree-granting postsecondary institutions in the U.S. in the 2017–2018 school year.) [7] Education at an elite Ivy league institution retains class status despite the abundance of universities in the US. Unlike the classes above and below, members of this middle group are insecure in their class status and are in constant fear of slipping down while hoping to jump up to higher classes. Fussell notes that a fiberglass Chris-Craft was a common prole and middle class pleasure boat meant to ape the precious wood yachts of the upper classes. Middles are terrified of causing conflict and resort to innocuous topics of conversation to avoid intellectual debate.[ citation needed ]

Bottom

Destitutes have virtually no capital or income, and include the incarcerated and the institutionalized, who are guarded by proles. Bottom out-of-sight are the homeless, living under bridges or otherwise separated from society. Although they occupy opposite ends of the class spectrum, both Top out-of-sight and Bottom out-of-sight groups are physically separated from the other classes.

Category X

In the final chapter, The X Way Out, Fussell identifies "category X" people who exist outside of the US class structure. Fussell argues that it is essentially impossible to change one's social class —up or down— but it is possible to extricate oneself from the class system by existing outside the system as a X person. (In the US, Middles and proles are conditioned to believe in meritocracy, despite class mobility being among the lowest in industrialized economies.) [8] He states that X people do self-directed work without a boss or supervisor; they are writers, artists, musicians and others "creative" types. X people dress comfortably, wearing L. L. Bean, Lands' End, and thrift store purchases. They drink wine, gin, and vodka— but not famous advertised brand names. X people speak multiple languages and are familiar with many cities internationally, often simply for the joy of knowledge. X people generally disregard social norms because they have no interest in class status and disdain the Middles who are so concerned with it. Fussell names the Mark Twain character Huckleberry Finn as an archetypal Category X person.

Reception

In a 2009 review for The Atlantic , Sandra Tsing Loh stated: "The experience of reading (and re-reading) Class is akin to wiping goggles one didn't know were fogged". [1] The book review website The Pequod rated the book a 9.5 (out of 10.0) and called it "Paul Fussell's most sustained work of genius, a razor-sharp and bitterly savage exploration of the class rigidities of our supposedly classless society." [9] Writing in Esquire, Dwight Garner found the book "impossible to put down because its sentences were so crisp, honest, and witty. It was more impossible to put down because it addressed a topic that I sensed had a moonlike pull over human affairs in general and my life in particular, but that no one spoke about." [10]

The chapter on "Category X" people was described as "insufferably self-regarding" by David Brooks in a 2021 article on bourgeois bohemians; Brooks states that Class is "a caustic and extravagantly snobby tour through the class markers prevalent at the time." [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

Meritocracy is the notion of a political system in which economic goods or political power are vested in individual people based on ability and talent, rather than wealth, social class, or race. Advancement in such a system is based on performance, as measured through examination or demonstrated achievement. Although the concept of meritocracy has existed for centuries, the first known use of the term was by sociologist Alan Fox in the journal Socialist Commentary in 1956. It was then popularized by sociologist Michael Dunlop Young, who used the term in his dystopian political and satirical book The Rise of the Meritocracy in 1958. Today, the term is often utilised to refer to social systems, in which personal advancement and success are primarily attributed to an individual's capabilities and merits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social class</span> Hierarchical social stratification

A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class, middle class, and upper class. Membership of a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, income, and belonging to a particular subculture or social network.

Productivism or growthism is the belief that measurable productivity and growth are the purpose of human organization, and that "more production is necessarily good". Critiques of productivism center primarily on the limits to growth posed by a finite planet and extend into discussions of human procreation, the work ethic, and even alternative energy production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social class in the United States</span> Grouping Americans by some measure of social status

Social class in the United States refers to the idea of grouping Americans by some measure of social status, typically by economic status. However, it could also refer to social status and/or location. The idea that American society can be divided into social classes is disputed, and there are many competing class systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social mobility</span> Mobility to move social classes

Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society. This movement occurs between layers or tiers in an open system of social stratification. Open stratification systems are those in which at least some value is given to achieved status characteristics in a society. The movement can be in a downward or upward direction. Markers for social mobility such as education and class, are used to predict, discuss and learn more about an individual or a group's mobility in society.

Upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of people who hold the highest social status, usually are the wealthiest members of class society, and wield the greatest political power. According to this view, the upper class is generally distinguished by immense wealth which is passed on from generation to generation. Prior to the 20th century, the emphasis was on aristocracy, which emphasized generations of inherited noble status, not just recent wealth.

Working-class culture is a range of cultures created by or popular among working-class people. The cultures can be contrasted with high culture and folk culture, and are often equated with popular culture and low culture. Working-class culture developed during the Industrial Revolution. Because most of the newly created working class were former peasants, the cultures took on much of the localised folk culture. This was soon altered by the changed conditions of social relationships and the increased mobility of the workforce and later by the marketing of mass-produced cultural artefacts such as prints and ornaments and commercial entertainment such as music hall and cinema.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Distribution of wealth</span> Spread of wealth in a society

The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or economic heterogeneity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social stratification</span> Concept in sociology

Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power. As such, stratification is the relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region, or social unit.

Though the American middle class does not have a definitive definition, contemporary social scientists have put forward several ostensibly congruent theories on it. Depending on the class model used, the middle class constitutes anywhere from 25% to 75% of households.

The African-American middle class consists of African-Americans who have middle-class status within the American class structure. It is a societal level within the African-American community that primarily began to develop in the early 1960s, when the ongoing Civil Rights Movement led to the outlawing of de jure racial segregation. The African American middle class exists throughout the United States, particularly in the Northeast and in the South, with the largest contiguous majority black middle-class neighborhoods being in the Washington, DC suburbs in Maryland. The African American middle class is also prevalent in the Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, San Antonio and Chicago areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic mobility</span> Ability to improve ones economic status

Economic mobility is the ability of an individual, family or some other group to improve their economic status—usually measured in income. Economic mobility is often measured by movement between income quintiles. Economic mobility may be considered a type of social mobility, which is often measured in change in income.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affluence in the United States</span> Economical and financial advantage

Affluence refers to an individual's or household's economical and financial advantage in comparison to others. It may be assessed through either income or wealth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social inequality</span> Uneven distribution of resources in a society

Social inequality occurs when resources within a society are distributed unevenly, often as a result of inequitable allocation practices that create distinct unequal patterns based on socially defined categories of people. Differences in accessing social goods within society are influenced by factors like power, religion, kinship, prestige, race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, and class. Social inequality usually implies the lack of equality of outcome, but may alternatively be conceptualized as a lack of equality in access to opportunity.

Belize's social structure is marked by enduring differences in the distribution of wealth, power, and prestige. Because of the small size of Belize's population and the intimate scale of social relations, the social distance between the rich and the poor, while significant, is nowhere as vast as in other Caribbean and Central American societies, such as Jamaica and El Salvador. Belize lacks the violent class and racial conflict that has figured so prominently in the social life of its Central American people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Socioeconomic mobility in the United States</span> Social and economic class mobility

Socioeconomic mobility in the United States refers to the upward or downward movement of Americans from one social class or economic level to another, through job changes, inheritance, marriage, connections, tax changes, innovation, illegal activities, hard work, lobbying, luck, health changes or other factors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social class in Colombia</span>

There have always been marked distinctions of social class in Colombia, although twentieth-century economic development has increased social mobility to some extent. Distinctions are based on wealth, social status, and race. Informal networks (roscas) centered on a person in a position of power are one factor in upper-class dominance. Official demographic categories based mainly on housing characteristics shed some light on the socioeconomic makeup of the population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Working class</span> Social class composed of those employed in lower-tier jobs

The working class includes all employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts. Working-class occupations include blue-collar jobs, and most pink-collar jobs. Members of the working class rely exclusively upon earnings from wage labour; thus, according to more inclusive definitions, the category can include almost all of the working population of industrialized economies, as well as those employed in the urban areas of non-industrialized economies or in the rural workforce.

The proletariat is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power. A member of such a class is a proletarian or a proletaire. Marxist philosophy regards the proletariat under conditions of capitalism as an exploited class⁠—  forced to accept meager wages in return for operating the means of production, which belong to the class of business owners, the bourgeoisie.

Myth of meritocracy is a phrase arguing that meritocracy, or achieving upward social mobility through one's own merits regardless of one's social position, is not widely attainable in capitalist societies because of inherent contradictions. Meritocracy is argued to be a myth because, despite being promoted as an open and accessible method of achieving upward class mobility under neoliberal or free market capitalism, wealth disparity and limited class mobility remain widespread, regardless of individual work ethic. Some scholars argue that the wealth disparity has even increased because the "myth" of meritocracy has been so effectively promoted and defended by the political and private elite through the media, education, corporate culture, and elsewhere. As described by economist Robert Reich, many Americans still believe in meritocracy despite "the nation drifting ever-farther away from it."

References

  1. 1 2 Class Dismissed: A new status anxiety is infecting affluent hipdom Sandra Tsing Loh, The Atlantic , March 2009
  2. ↑ On the Touchy Subject of Class in America Dwight Garner, New York Times, 27 July 2017
  3. ↑ Class by Paul Fussell Simon & Schuster
  4. ↑ "Paul Fussell, Literary Scholar and Critic, Is Dead at 88". The New York Times. 23 May 2012. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Class In America". Virginia Quarterly Review. Summer 1984. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
  6. 1 2 "Class In America". Virginia Quarterly Review. Summer 1984. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  7. ↑ A Guide to the Changing Number of U.S. Universities Josh Moody, U.S. News & World Report , February 15, 2019
  8. ↑ Gould, Elise (10 October 2012). "U.S. lags behind peer countries in mobility". Economic Policy Institute. Archived from the original on 2012-10-14.
  9. ↑ "Class: A Guide Through the American Status System | The Pequod". the-pequod.com. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
  10. ↑ "We Admire Americans Who Don't Forget Their Roots". Esquire. 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
  11. ↑ HOW THE BOBOS BROKE AMERICA: The creative class was supposed to foster progressive values and economic growth. Instead we got resentment, alienation, and endless political dysfunction. David Brooks, The Atlantic , SEPTEMBER 2021
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