Social Class Justifications:
The Capitalist Conspiracy?

By: Wendi Kane
Mentor: James Wright

Appendix - Table and Figures

Table 1: Frequencies of all variables
  frequency percent
Gender- female 921 61.6
Race- white 1071 71.6
Parent's annual income
< 30,000 156 10.4
30K - 50K 278 19.4
50K - 75K 344 23.0
> 75,000 652 43.6
Biggest Predictor of future economic success
Hard work 861 57.6
Family 100 6.7
Social class 203 13.6
Who you know 305 20.4


Table 2: Predictor of Economic Success by Socioeconomic Class
Socioeconomic
  < 30,000 30k-50k 50k-75k >75k
Ind. talent & hard work 55.2% 59.2% 62.5% 58.2%
Social class 17.5% 14.8% 12.9% 12.7%
Family background 6.5% 4.3% 6.8% 7.3%
Who you know 20.8% 21.7% 17.8% 21.8%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100%


Table 3: Predictor of Economic Success by Gender
  Gender
  Male Female
Ind. talent & hard work 55.8% 60.2% **
Social class 16.9% 11.8%
Family background 5.9% 7.4%
Who you know 21.4% 20.4%
Total 100% 100%
** = p<.01


Table 4: Predictor of Economic Success by Race
  Race
  White Other
Ind. talent & hard work 59.5% 56.7%
Social class 13.0% 15.5%
Family background 7.3% 5.9%
Who you know 20.0% 21.9%
Total 100% 100%


Table 5: Logistic regression
Individual talent or hard work as biggest predictor of future economic success
Gender
.844 (-.170) **
(Male=1)
Race
1.13 (.123)
(White=1)
Parents annual income
1.01 (.006)
-2 log likelihood
1869.49
Constant
1.39 (.330)
N=
1385
** = p<.01 (coefficient in parenthesis)


Table 6: Crosstab – Respondents who identified as being a member of
the lower class and their agreement with the statement: members of the
lower class have the same opportunities as everyone else.
  Yes No
Strongly disagree 34.6% ** 15.6%
Disagree 26.1% 35.5%
Neutral 18.6% 22.6%
Agree 12.1% 19.9%
Strongly agree 8.6% 6.4%
** = p<.01


Table 7: Crosstab – Respondents who have had little or no interaction
with members of the lower class and their agreement with the statement:
members of the lower class are mostly minorities.
Little or no interaction with lower class
Disagree 33.1%
Neutral 24.9%
Agree 42.2% **
** = p<.01