Supergirl
08-31-2010, 11:20 PM
For those interested. x-posted to my blog.
http://realsupergirl.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/class-survey-part-2/
In terms of professions of people’s parents, in total 48 people had parents with typically middle class jobs (doctor, lawyer, therapist, academic, engineer, religious leader, CEO). A whopping 72 of respondents’ parents had more typically working class type jobs, including government jobs (13), small business owner (12), service industry (15), administrative staff (14), military (4), tradesmen and women (7), manufacturing (6), and farming (1). One person also said their parent collected disability. This means that while 72 parents had working class jobs, only 22 people went on to continue in typically working class jobs themselves. This indicates a significant drop in the number of working class jobs represented by the sample of people who took the survey. One wonders if this is symptomatic of the drop in many of the working class type professions in this country: manufacturing has gone overseas, farms are dying, etc.
In terms of the education background of people’s parents, 40 out of 64 people responding to this question said at least one of their parents attended college. College education is widely known to correlate with middle class attitudes toward money and work and often (but not always) correlates with improved income and upwardly mobile class status. Parents who went to college late in life (10 respondents) or did not attend college (11 respondents), or who attended a trade or vocational program (3 respondents) would generally be more consistent with working class values. The fact that 48 people said their parents were middle class and 40 people said that their parents attended college means there is a slight discrepancy between what you would expect, but not huge. One wonders whether the 8 people who said their parents were middle class were labeling their parents this way based on income, when in fact their parents worked in working class jobs, or perhaps they have a different definition of what “middle class” is. Part of what makes the whole discussion about class difficult is that there is not a lot of clarity about definitions and terms. Given the vast number of people who report to me anecdotally that they are uncomfortable talking about money, I was surprised to see that 49 out of 65 people said they were either completely comfortable talking about money or simply felt it was “a little awkward but not too bad.” No one said they found it deeply uncomfortable, and only 13 people said “I do it if I absolutely had to.” One person wrote in “it’s rude” while another wrote in “quite happy to point out people’s privilege by disclosing my own situations.”
Finally, in the section in which people were asked to express their opinion on a 5-point Likert scale about certain statements, the results were a little hard to interpret. This is likely due to some of the statements being worded too ambiguously, and the tendency of people to wind up selecting the middle option. For example, in response to the statement “I believe unions are the only way to protect workers' rights” 25 out of 66 people said they “sort of agree and sort of disagree” and it is not clear whether people were waffling because of the absolutism of “the only way” to protect workers’ rights or because they were unsure of how much they support unions in general. Interestingly, however, only 16 people said they agree with the statement while 25 people said they disagree with the statement. Considering that it is an undisputed fact that without a union a worker can, in fact, be fired for just about any reason an employer wants, this suggests unions need to do a better job at making their case for their value to the American public.
In response to the statement “If I didn’t have money I would choose not to work”, 21 people were again smack down in the middle, and it is not clear what the mitigating factors for these people might be if they were faced with this situation. However, only 16 people said they agree with this statement while 29 people said they disagree. This statement was intended to be an expression of a generally working class attitude toward work (work is utilitarian, it pays the bills) but the numbers don’t quite line up since only 12 people identified as poor or working class and 42 people identified themselves as middle or upper class.
The other statements had more clear answers in one direction or the other. The statement “I wound up in my job because I needed a job” – another statement intended as a typically working class attitude toward work and money -- yielded 21 people saying they agreed with it and 32 people disagreeing with it. By contrast the statement “I chose to go into my current profession deliberately by attending a Master's program or PhD program” – a statement intended as an expression of typically middle class attitudes toward work and money -- yielded 25 people saying they agree and 39 people saying they disagree. This statement also yielded the most divergent opinions – 22 of the people who agreed “completely agreed” and 33 of the 39 people who disagreed “completely disagreed. Only 2 people said they “sort of agree and sort of disagree.”
The item with the highest votes of all five statements was the 48 people who “completely disagreed” with the statement “I chose to go into my current profession deliberately by attending a technical or trade school.” In total 53 people disagreed with this statement, 9 agreed, and 1 person was completely in the middle.
About an equal number of people disagreed (27) with the statement “I have changed jobs a lot in my lifetime” as agreed (25) with this statement. With 14 people squarely on the fence about this statement, it accounts for the most evenly distributed statement people rated. It may reflect the myriad of reasons people lose jobs or change jobs, which happens in both middle class and working class fields. On the other hand, a majority of people (35) said they disagreed with the statement “I would never want to have to hire or fire someone” while only 14 people said they agreed with this statement, which was intended to capture a generally anti-management attitude in many people with a typically working class attitude to money and work.
Finally, in terms of demographics of the respondents, of the 66 people who responded to this question, 29 people grew up with a stay at home parent, 46 people grew up with two parents who were married. This latter number is significant since it obviously flies in the face of the two-thirds divorce rate that has been widely documented in this country. 47 people grew up attending public schools, and 38 people said it was false or mostly false to say that they grew up in a place that was diverse economically and racially. 54 people said they found the statement “I grew up knowing a lot of adults who lost their jobs or couldn't work” to be false or mostly false. 27 people said they agreed with the statement “the place where I grew up had only one public high school” while 37 people said they disagreed with this statement.
Keep up the discussion and the thoughts - I'm loving the stuff people are putting up there in the other thread. There's a lot of nuances and mitigating factors when it comes to class, which is why I was so curious to do these surveys and see what people said. It's also something we rarely talk about in an honest, straightforward way in this country.
http://realsupergirl.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/class-survey-part-2/
In terms of professions of people’s parents, in total 48 people had parents with typically middle class jobs (doctor, lawyer, therapist, academic, engineer, religious leader, CEO). A whopping 72 of respondents’ parents had more typically working class type jobs, including government jobs (13), small business owner (12), service industry (15), administrative staff (14), military (4), tradesmen and women (7), manufacturing (6), and farming (1). One person also said their parent collected disability. This means that while 72 parents had working class jobs, only 22 people went on to continue in typically working class jobs themselves. This indicates a significant drop in the number of working class jobs represented by the sample of people who took the survey. One wonders if this is symptomatic of the drop in many of the working class type professions in this country: manufacturing has gone overseas, farms are dying, etc.
In terms of the education background of people’s parents, 40 out of 64 people responding to this question said at least one of their parents attended college. College education is widely known to correlate with middle class attitudes toward money and work and often (but not always) correlates with improved income and upwardly mobile class status. Parents who went to college late in life (10 respondents) or did not attend college (11 respondents), or who attended a trade or vocational program (3 respondents) would generally be more consistent with working class values. The fact that 48 people said their parents were middle class and 40 people said that their parents attended college means there is a slight discrepancy between what you would expect, but not huge. One wonders whether the 8 people who said their parents were middle class were labeling their parents this way based on income, when in fact their parents worked in working class jobs, or perhaps they have a different definition of what “middle class” is. Part of what makes the whole discussion about class difficult is that there is not a lot of clarity about definitions and terms. Given the vast number of people who report to me anecdotally that they are uncomfortable talking about money, I was surprised to see that 49 out of 65 people said they were either completely comfortable talking about money or simply felt it was “a little awkward but not too bad.” No one said they found it deeply uncomfortable, and only 13 people said “I do it if I absolutely had to.” One person wrote in “it’s rude” while another wrote in “quite happy to point out people’s privilege by disclosing my own situations.”
Finally, in the section in which people were asked to express their opinion on a 5-point Likert scale about certain statements, the results were a little hard to interpret. This is likely due to some of the statements being worded too ambiguously, and the tendency of people to wind up selecting the middle option. For example, in response to the statement “I believe unions are the only way to protect workers' rights” 25 out of 66 people said they “sort of agree and sort of disagree” and it is not clear whether people were waffling because of the absolutism of “the only way” to protect workers’ rights or because they were unsure of how much they support unions in general. Interestingly, however, only 16 people said they agree with the statement while 25 people said they disagree with the statement. Considering that it is an undisputed fact that without a union a worker can, in fact, be fired for just about any reason an employer wants, this suggests unions need to do a better job at making their case for their value to the American public.
In response to the statement “If I didn’t have money I would choose not to work”, 21 people were again smack down in the middle, and it is not clear what the mitigating factors for these people might be if they were faced with this situation. However, only 16 people said they agree with this statement while 29 people said they disagree. This statement was intended to be an expression of a generally working class attitude toward work (work is utilitarian, it pays the bills) but the numbers don’t quite line up since only 12 people identified as poor or working class and 42 people identified themselves as middle or upper class.
The other statements had more clear answers in one direction or the other. The statement “I wound up in my job because I needed a job” – another statement intended as a typically working class attitude toward work and money -- yielded 21 people saying they agreed with it and 32 people disagreeing with it. By contrast the statement “I chose to go into my current profession deliberately by attending a Master's program or PhD program” – a statement intended as an expression of typically middle class attitudes toward work and money -- yielded 25 people saying they agree and 39 people saying they disagree. This statement also yielded the most divergent opinions – 22 of the people who agreed “completely agreed” and 33 of the 39 people who disagreed “completely disagreed. Only 2 people said they “sort of agree and sort of disagree.”
The item with the highest votes of all five statements was the 48 people who “completely disagreed” with the statement “I chose to go into my current profession deliberately by attending a technical or trade school.” In total 53 people disagreed with this statement, 9 agreed, and 1 person was completely in the middle.
About an equal number of people disagreed (27) with the statement “I have changed jobs a lot in my lifetime” as agreed (25) with this statement. With 14 people squarely on the fence about this statement, it accounts for the most evenly distributed statement people rated. It may reflect the myriad of reasons people lose jobs or change jobs, which happens in both middle class and working class fields. On the other hand, a majority of people (35) said they disagreed with the statement “I would never want to have to hire or fire someone” while only 14 people said they agreed with this statement, which was intended to capture a generally anti-management attitude in many people with a typically working class attitude to money and work.
Finally, in terms of demographics of the respondents, of the 66 people who responded to this question, 29 people grew up with a stay at home parent, 46 people grew up with two parents who were married. This latter number is significant since it obviously flies in the face of the two-thirds divorce rate that has been widely documented in this country. 47 people grew up attending public schools, and 38 people said it was false or mostly false to say that they grew up in a place that was diverse economically and racially. 54 people said they found the statement “I grew up knowing a lot of adults who lost their jobs or couldn't work” to be false or mostly false. 27 people said they agreed with the statement “the place where I grew up had only one public high school” while 37 people said they disagreed with this statement.
Keep up the discussion and the thoughts - I'm loving the stuff people are putting up there in the other thread. There's a lot of nuances and mitigating factors when it comes to class, which is why I was so curious to do these surveys and see what people said. It's also something we rarely talk about in an honest, straightforward way in this country.