Social Class in the U.S.

2021-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

My summary of Michael O. Church’s The 3-ladder system of social class in the U.S. from 2012.

L4 - Secondary Labor

The “working poor” earning $10 - 20 per hour. Few skills and no leverage.

L3 - Primary Labor

The “blue collar” or “working class” earning $20k - $60k per year. Factory work skills. But If the market for their skills collapses, they can fall down into L4.

L2 - High-skill Labor

Plumbers, airline pilots, and electricians, some earning over $100k per year. Usually some barrier to entry in their field (unions or licensing).

L1 - Labor Leadership

Small business owners and landlords, earning solidly upper-middle income.

G4 - Transitional Gentry

Community college students coming from L2. A 4-year degree will push them up into G3.

G3 - Primary Gentry

The “upper-middle class” with 4-year degrees, earning $30k - $200k per year.

G2 - High Gentry

Graduates from elite colleges working as junior executive roles in medium-sized companies, innovative startups, management consultancies, and investment banks. Also college professors, scientists, entrepreneurs and writers. Seek both intellectual and financial reward from their career.

G1 - Cultural Influencers

Recognized as smart, knowledgeable, creative and interesting. TV hosts, bloggers, journalists earning $100k - $1M per year.

E4 - Strivers

Junior investment bankers, law firm associates, and young startup entrepreneurs trying to transition up to E3.

E3 - Elite Servants

The “working rich”, law-firm partners, senior investment bankers, politicians and chief executives earning $200k - $5M per year.

E2 - National Elites

The “upper class” or “old money”. Believe that paid full-time work is dishonorable. They hold board positions and associate their names with institutions without getting too involved.

E1 - Global Elite

The very rich, extremely powerful and trans-national. The corporate billionaires, drug kingpins, third-world despots and real estate magnates. They don’t care about culture or morals, only control on a global scale. Hitler, Stalin, Henry Kissinger, Osama bin Laden.

pie title Class Breakdown
  "U" : 10
  "L4" : 30
  "L3" : 20
  "L2" : 14
  "L1" : 1
  "G4" : 5
  "G3" : 16
  "G2" : 2

Notes

Celebrities - Well-known people can come from any of the 3 ladders.

Labor celebrities are L1 - Labor Leader
Gentry celebrities are G1 - Cultural Influencer, but big celebrities tend to come from the other ladders
Elite celebrities are E3 - Elite Servant, the National and Global elites prefer to work behind the scenes

Presidents

Barack Obama is G1 - Cultural Influencer
George Bush is E2 - National Elite
Bill Clinton is E3 - Elite Servant
Reagan was L1 - Labor Leader
Kennedy was E2 - National Elite
Lyndon Johnson was L1 - Labor Leader

FDA’s Trolley Problem

2020-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

Interesting comment by Fallon at https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/adumbrations-of-aducanumab/comments#comment-2538655

What’s most shocking is always how much the doctors and even internal employees internalize the FDA mentality that you’d let 10,000 people die from approval delays vs one person go to the hospital from an unintended side effect.

First thought: This the trolley problem. Do I throw the train track switch to save the 10,000 people on track one and send the train down track two to kill 1 person? Many people are okay with not throwing the switch. They don’t want to be responsible for actively killing 1 person.

Second thought: No, this isn’t the standard trolley problem. This is really someone with a big gun standing at the track switch to keep anyone from throwing it.

Third thought: No, it’s not that either. It’s 10,000 people on track one with a 100% chance of being killed. And some of them want to move over to over to track two where they only have a 1% chance of being killed. And the FDA has built a fence to keep everyone on track one. And they have guards that patrol the fence with guns. Yeah, that’s the FDA.

JD Brennan