SOC 201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Social Stratification
Document Summary
The term class refers to any group of people . Class situation is, in this sense, ultimately market situation. Marx"s version of class would place major-league baseball players (for whom, in. 2009, the minimum salary is ,000, while more than half of the players make in excess of million dollars) in the same class as secretaries who earn less than. ,000 a year, because they all earn a living by selling their labor. But from weber"s point of view, baseball players would be in a much higher economic class than secretaries owing to the differences in their respective market situations. Furthermore, according to weber, marx"s emphasis on economic factors to the exclusion of all else was misguided. For weber, social stratification was multidimensional, and economic situation was only one dimension of social position. For example, a college professor who earns less than ,000 a year still has a higher social standing than the building contractor who makes ,000.
