The Warner and Coleman–Rainwater class models were concerned primarily with prestige. The Gilbert–Kahl model was based solely on economic considerations. Explain why these models still show remarkable consistency.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

There are some variations in class labels, but the main differences stem from the underlying bases of the models. Our model is based on purely economic considerations, in particular occupation and sources of income. Coleman and Rainwater, like their mentor Warner, have created a prestige model based on public perceptions of the class order, lifestyles, and patterns of association. For this reason, they make the distinction between old money and new money (in effect splitting our capitalist class) and they lean toward the traditional blue-collar/white-collar distinction to define the middle and working classes. Despite these differences, the three maps of the class system are broadly similar. This may, in some degree, reflect their common debt to the tradition of sociological thinking about class. But the real key to their similarities is that in Kansas City and Boston, as well as Yankee City, prestige is largely, though not quite wholly, derived from economic position.