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Have I read this wrong, but surely this implies social mobility?~Manwe
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I think I was a bit confusing...
You can still have a classist society and have social mobility. And that is the difference between class and caste.
A caste system is strictly hereditary (and that determines your social, political, and economic power). The caste you are born in, is the caste you stay in and your children stay in. I think at least within hobbit society there is no caste system (as I would use Sam as proof of this).
However, 'caste' is different from 'class.' With the class system, there is room for social mobility. The boundaries are more fluent and there is room to move up or down from one social class to another. Depending upon who you read (Marx or Weber) your class is defined by your economic standing, your power, and your prestige. Where a 'caste' is determined hereditarily and it is the caste you are born into that determines the amount of money, power, and prestige you have.
Therefor, at least in hobbit society, there it is a classist society. You have a hierarchy of 'power' from the top elites to the bottom of the social ladder. However, somebody can move from one 'level' to the level above or below them. As we see with Sam. If Hobbit society was based upon 'castes' than since Sam was born a gardener/servant, he would forever stay a gardener/servant...and his children would be gardeners/servants.
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actually i do not think that 4% are that few... 4% in one year, makes 40% in 10 years, right?~thebastardlord
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It's not an accumulating number from year to year like that. Meaning in 2004 at 4% it doesn't rise to 8% in 2005 and then 12% in 2006...and so on. It's not a growth of 4% a year, it was simply 4%
per year.
The 2004 study was based upon people born in 1974 (so 30 years before). It took those who were born in 1974, the social class of their parents and saw what their social class was in 2004. Which the studies showed that only 4% changed social classes (up or down), meaning 96% stayed in the same social class as their parents.
Following this pattern, in 2005 (unless if something dramatically changed) those who were born in 1975...around 4% of them would have been in a different class than that of their parents. Hope that clears some things up. It's not a growth of 4% every year, it's 4% per year.