Social classes and socioeconomic stratification

Social Classes in America

The American dream is what many people hopes to attain in their lives. Many Americans, or even non-Americans who migrated to America, pursue a goal in life that they call the American Dream. Within this dream is an objective of being in the American workforce. Sad as it is in reality, however, this dream has been categorized by many into classes -- classes that distinguish the higher from the lower groups of people in society.

To be called a "professional" makes one feel proud of the achievements that he is attaining in life. A lot of people perceive that the term "professional" means that an individual had attained a college diplomas, or even masters and doctoral degrees. However, if we are to consider the following few meanings of the term, we can conclude that a "professional" is not only those who holds a diploma, but someone who makes his skills a source of living.

"has a service orientation, making expertise available to others, has a distinctive body of knowledge and competencies, coupled with appropriate attitudes and values, has autonomy in performance of work, within agreed boundaries and regulatory framework, and enjoys public recognition of the authority by virtue of operating under code of ethics."

"A person who participates in a given occupation over a period of time and makes it a career."

In the American society, the workforce is usually classified according to the level or status of one's work. Such classification includes the what they call "white-collar," "blue-collar," and "pink-collar" jobs. The "white-collar" job is considered to be the highest class which many considers as the category where professionals fall. On the other hand, the "blue-collar" and the "pink-collar" categories are perceived to be those of the lower kind of jobs where school education is mostly not required. According to researches and studies, this kind of job grouping, or putting labels on jobs, unfortunately degrade many kinds of decent jobs. According to Liane Hansen (Ohanian, 2004),

Those categorizations are often too simple and can easily denigrate the work being done as well as the thought that goes behind it.

Although it is transparent and a fact in reality that there are big differences between the "white-collar," "blue-collar," and "pink-collar" jobs, such as the rate of salary, the types of work done, and the convenience of the work and its environment, Mike Rose (Ohanian, 2004) pointed out that there is a threat in such classification of jobs in society. One threat may be that the status of a job that is stereotyped to belong in a lower category, such as the "blue-collar" and the "pink-collar," may remain degrading to the perception of many despite of the fact that the job is decent, productive, and useful to others. An example of which is the job of a carpenter, a construction worker, or a driver. Consequently, it is possible that the continuation of such perception in the next generations may hamper the progress in life of those whose jobs, or whose interests, belongs in the lower category.