Reply to The Social Class Ladders—Labor, Gentry, and Elite

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[quote=Anonymous]DCUM has multiple threads discussing “class” in the United States and poster after poster ends up conflating the easily measurable “economic class” with the taboo-to-discuss “social class”.

A few years ago, a blogger named Michael Church posted an interesting “[url="https://web.archive.org/web/20151006183427/https:/michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/the-3-ladder-system-of-social-class-in-the-u-s/"]Three Ladder System[/url]” of social class in the United States. It caught the attention of a few more bloggers:
•	[url="http://siderea.livejournal.com/1260265.html?nojs=1&format=light"]Siderea[/url]
•	“[url="http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/30/staying-classy/"]Staying Classy[/url]“ at Slate Star Codex
•	“[url="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/4/8/1200263/-Examining-social-class-in-the-US-Church-s-3-ladder-system"]Examining social class in the US[/url]“ at Daily Kos

Church created a social class system that looks like a series of parallel ladders with each ladder matching at a two-rung offset. He calls the ladders “labor”, “gentry”, and “elite”, and each one goes from 4 at the bottom to 1 at the top. The bottom-most is the “underclass”, which is a group all its own.

So roughly:
[code]
           E1
           E2
     G1  E3
     G2  E4
L1  G3
L2  G4
L3
L4
U[/code]

In this system, one could be earning $200,000+ annually as a L1 Small Business Owner, a G2 Junior Executive, or an E4 entry Investment Banker / Associate in Big Law. All would have an upper-middle-class income, but their tastes, relationships, and career trajectory would be very different.

A person earning $200,000 on each of these ladders would likely live in different housing developments, have different friends, have attended different colleges, and have different interests.

You probably are aware of the social class norms for your own social class and the adjacent ones. Further away than that and you really don't have any clue whatsoever. It's also why its so unusual to move social classes. It's difficult and there aren't many resources to guide you through the process.
[/quote]

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