Social Class in the First Two Decades of the 21st Century America: Has Class Structure Been Altered by the Financial Crisis?

There is little that is more enigmatic about society in the United States of America of the 21st century than is the concept known as “social class.” At once, there is no social class in a people’s republic which is what the United States of America is supposed to be, whilst in a different sense, social class is everything in America today. Unlike South Asia and especially India, Americans are not born into a family caste structure, such as Brahmin or Untouchable. Unlike the United Kingdom, America has no list of feudal titles or title holders such as published in Debrett’s Peerage or Burke’s Peerage, except in competitive sports such as tennis where competitors are individually “seeded” or some team sports such as American soccer where teams are “re-seeded” following elimination competitions. Some cities do publish an annual Society Visiting List in a blue silk cover, such as Baltimore’s famous volume known as the “Blue Book,” in which appear the names of “suitable” guests who may be invited to attend the year’s “Cotillion,” or bachelor ball for young women and their male escorts, all expected to be from elite and wealthy Bourgeois families, although to be sure some young debutantes and their honoured male guests are none of the foregoing. The number of patrons who purchase Baltimore’s “Blue Book,” most likely to savor their names being listed between its covers, has dwindled progressively from over 20,000 half a century ago in 1960 to under 2,000 in 2008 for the 120th annual edition.

Keywords:
Social class, Class structure, Society, family caste

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How To Cite This Article:

David A. Jones, Social Class in the First Two Decades of the 21st Century America: Has Class Structure Been Altered by the Financial Crisis? Swift Journal of Social Science and Humanities 2(4), pp. 036-042.