Read Chapters 8 and 13 and watch Two American Families (2013) by PBS (about 1 hr 23 minutes, posted on Moodle) and respond to the question below.
Firstly, using Chapter 13, explain how the United States society has been stratified by class structure. How does the wealth of individuals and families become the indication of class membership and why do class conflicts persist in the United States? Secondly, using Chapters 8 and 13, discuss how market economies and capitalism create a great deal of economic inequalities. Why do you think the greatest disparities of wealth and income of any industrialized country exist in the United States? Lastly, analyze Two American Families using the above discussions. How do you explain the decline of the American middle class especially in the context of accelerated globalization through two families, the Neumann and Stanley families? How did the film help you understand U.S. class stratification and economic inequalities by examining overall lifestyle based on their income, education, and race of the last two decades of actual lives of “two American families”?
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