Editing Social class (section)

===Three-level economic class model===

Today, concepts of social class often assume three general economic categories: a very wealthy and powerful upper class that owns and controls the means of production; a middle class of professional workers, [[small business]] owners and low-level [[managers]]; and a lower class, who rely on low-paying jobs for their livelihood and experience [[poverty]].

====Upper class====
{{Main|Upper class}}
{{See also|Elite|Aristocracy|Oligarchy|Business magnate|Ruling class}}
[[File:Troisordres.jpg|thumb|upright|A symbolic image of three orders of feudal society in Europe prior to the [[French Revolution]], which shows the rural third estate carrying the clergy and the nobility]]
The upper class<ref name="Brown-2009-953">{{cite book|author=Brown, D.F.|chapter=Social class and Status|editor=Mey, Jacob|title=Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics|publisher=Elsevier|year=2009|isbn=978-0-08-096297-9|page=953|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GcmXgeBE7k0C&pg=PA953}}</ref> is the social class composed of those who are [[economic inequality|rich]], well-born, powerful, or a combination of those. They usually wield the greatest political power. In some countries, wealth alone is sufficient to allow entry into the upper class. In others, only people who are born or marry into certain aristocratic bloodlines are considered members of the upper class and those who gain great wealth through commercial activity are looked down upon by the aristocracy as ''[[nouveau riche]]''.<ref>The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, "nouveau riche French Usually Disparaging. a person who is newly rich", 1969, Random House</ref> 

In the United Kingdom, for example, the upper classes are the aristocracy and royalty, with wealth playing a less important role in class status. Many aristocratic peerages or titles have seats attached to them, with the holder of the title (e.g. Earl of Bristol) and his family being the custodians of the house, but not the owners. Many of these require high expenditures, so wealth is typically needed. Many aristocratic peerages and their homes are parts of estates, owned and run by the title holder with moneys generated by the land, rents or other sources of wealth. However, in the United States where there is no aristocracy or royalty, the upper class status exclusive of Americans of ancestral wealth or patricians of European ancestry is referred to in the media as the extremely wealthy, the so-called "super-rich", though there is some tendency even in the United States for those with old family wealth to look down on those who have accrued their money through business, the struggle between [[new money]] and [[old money]].{{cn|date=March 2025}}

The upper class is generally contained within the richest one or two percent of the population. Members of the upper class are often born into it and are distinguished by immense wealth which is passed from generation to generation in the form of estates.<ref>{{cite book|author=Akhbar-Williams, Tahira|chapter=Class Structure|editor=Smith, Jessie C.|title=Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture, Volume 1|publisher= ABC-CLIO|year=2010|isbn=978-0-313-35796-1|page=322|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=10rEGSIItjgC&pg=PA322|access-date=2 July 2015|archive-date=19 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219212400/https://books.google.com/books?id=10rEGSIItjgC&pg=PA322 |url-status=live}}</ref> Based on some new social and political theories, the upper class consists of the most wealthy decile group in society, holding nearly 87% of the whole society's wealth.<ref name = baizidi>{{Cite journal|last=Baizidi|first=Rahim|date=2019-09-02|title=Paradoxical class: paradox of interest and political conservatism in middle class|journal=Asian Journal of Political Science|volume=27|issue=3|pages=272–285|doi=10.1080/02185377.2019.1642772|s2cid=199308683|issn=0218-5377}}</ref>

====Middle class====
{{Main|Middle class|Upper middle class|Lower middle class|Bourgeoisie}} See also: [[Middle-class squeeze]]
The middle class is the group of people with jobs that pay significantly more than the [[poverty line]]. Examples of these types of jobs are factory workers, salespeople, teachers, cooks and nurses. There is a new trend by some scholars which assumes that the size of the middle class in every society is the same. For example, in paradox of interest theory, the middle class are those who are in 6th–9th decile groups, holding nearly 12% of the whole society's wealth.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Baizidi|first=Rahim|date=2019-07-17|title=Paradoxical class: paradox of interest and political conservatism in middle class|journal=Asian Journal of Political Science|volume=27|issue=3|pages=272–285|doi=10.1080/02185377.2019.1642772|s2cid=199308683|issn=0218-5377}}</ref>

The middle class is the most contested of the three categories, the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the lower and upper classes.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Middle class|editor=Stearns, Peter N.|title=Encyclopedia of social history|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1994|isbn=978-0-8153-0342-8|page=621|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kkIeyCEedrsC&pg=PA621}}</ref> One example of the contest of this term is that in the United States "middle class" is applied very broadly and includes people who would elsewhere be considered [[working class]]. Middle-class workers are sometimes called "[[white-collar worker]]s".

Theorists such as [[Ralf Dahrendorf]] have noted the tendency toward an enlarged middle class in modern Western societies, particularly in relation to the necessity of an educated work force in technological economies.<ref>Dahrendorf, Ralf. (1959) Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.</ref> Perspectives concerning [[globalization]] and [[neocolonialism]], such as [[dependency theory]], suggest this is due to the shift of low-level labour to [[developing nation]]s and the [[Third World]].<ref>Bornschier V. (1996), 'Western society in transition' New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.</ref>

====Lower class====
[[File:Camden NJ poverty.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|In many countries, the lowest stratum of the working class, the [[underclass]], often lives in urban areas with low-quality [[civil services]]]]
{{Main|Working class |Proletariat}}
{{See also|Precarity}}

The lower class (occasionally described as the working class) are those employed in low-paying [[wage]] jobs with very little economic security. The term "lower class" also refers to persons with low income.

The working class is sometimes separated into those who are employed but lacking financial security (the "[[working poor]]") and an [[underclass]]—those who are long-term [[unemployed]] and/or [[homeless]], especially those receiving [[welfare spending|welfare]] from the [[state (polity)|state]]. The latter is today considered analogous to the Marxist term "[[lumpenproletariat]]". However, during the time of Marx's writing the lumpenproletariat referred to those in dire poverty; such as the homeless.<ref name="Brown-2009-953" /> Members of the working class are sometimes called [[blue-collar worker]]s.