The idea of ​​“social classes” is considered an uncomfortable topic among Americans; so it's rarely talked about because it makes people uncomfortable. Generally the people interviewed say that there are no lessons in the area where they live (Fussell). Class and status are two completely different things because status associates a series of things and class is simply a unity (Goldschmidt). Americans often reveal their class simply by the criteria they use to define the meaning of the word “class” (Fussell). The US ideology of a classless society has changed immensely over time. In modern America, social class affects everything from the diversity of citizens to mobility and political issues. A class society is “one [a society] in which the hierarchy of prestige and status is divisible into groups each with its own economy. , attitudinal and cultural characteristics and each with differential degrees of power in community decisions” (Nisbet). Class in the modern United States of America is difficult to define. As naively stated by R. H. Tawney in his book Equality, "The word 'class' is full of unpleasant associations, so that dwelling on it may be interpreted as the symptom of a perverse mind and a jaundiced spirit" (qtd. in Fussell ). The three most commonly known classes in U.S. society are upper class, middle class, and working class. Factors used to determine class among people include: “rank, tribe, culture, taste, attitudes and assumptions, source of identity, system of exclusion, and simply money” (Scott and Leonhardt). It seems that a person can sense when he is among members of his class; almost as if the two people were automatically connected. The idea came about halfway through the document. Quarterly 124.3 (2009): 391. HistoryReference Center. EBSCO. Network. March 14, 2011.Aronowitz, Stanley. How the lesson works. New York: Vail-Ballou Press, nd Print.Domhoff, G. William. “Power in America: The Power Theory of Class Domination.” Who rules America? Professor G. William Domhoff, April 2005. Web. 14 March 2011. Fussell, Paolo. "A sensitive subject." PBS.org. Public broadcasting service. nd Web. March 14, 2011. Goldschmidt, Walter. "Social Class in America: A Critical Review." American Anthropologist52.4 (2009): 483-498. Network. March 14, 2011.Nisbet, Robert A. The Decline and Fall of Social Classes. California: University of California Press: 1988. Samuel, Larry. Rich. New York: AMACOM, 2009. Print.Scott, Janny, and David Leonhardt. "Shadow lines that still divide." Nytimes.com. The NewYork Times Company, May 15, 2005. Web. March 15 2011.