- The main similarity between both articles is how they both use income/wealth to point out the disparities between the highest level of wealth and the lowest level or wealth for individuals and how that shapes how and where someone may live. The differences between the two articles is how 4.1 focuses on many different variables to which one may identify within a social class (subjective class) as well as the variables in which most people are placed within a social class (objective class). The article gives specific examples of some of these variables (i.e income, education, family background, age, etc) and how each variable may influence where one may fit (or where they think they fit) into a particular class. Article 4.2 has a simpler approach to simply use median income in a particular location to make distinctions as to how income defines social class as well as to highlight how most locations in NYC have inhabitants that have similar income levels and in turn more than likely fit into the same social class based on income and wealth.
2. The closest stop to my apartment is on the 6 train and it is Westchester Square- East Tremont. The median income level is around $32,000. Using the chart from 2.1, the majority of the neighborhood has individuals who would fit into the working and middle class. Those two classes make up at least 75% of the population. I am a little surprised but not really, because on one hand the section of my neighborhood is more of an affluent neighborhood (Throggs Neck), so I did believe the average income would be a little bit higher than $32,000. That being said, I have seen some streets along the East Tremont area that do stretch to some areas that aren’t as developed as where I currently live, so it was not a complete surprise.
3. The reading pretty much confirmed what I kind of already knew (assumed to be true), which is the majority of the middle upper to upper class tend to migrate to parts of Manhattan (specifically the lower east side). There are large blocks of lower to working class citizens live in parts of Brooklyn and The Bronx. It sheds a light on how most of these locations do not have a large range of income levels, meaning in most cases people with similar income and wealth levels tend to live in the same areas of the city, with some exceptions of course.
