SYG Exam 3 Monday March 30 2015 Chapter 8 Stratification Social inequality describes a situation where different people have different amounts of wealth prestige or power Strati cation a structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and power in a society Three major forms of strati cation Slavery enslaved individuals are owned by other people who treat these human beings as property Slavery still exists in many developing countries human traf cking Caste hereditary ranks that are usually religiously dictated and that tend to be xed and immobile Caste is an ascribed status and is sharply de ned each membered is expected to marry within their own caste Class a social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved characteristics can in uence social mobility These boundaries are imprecisely de ned and one can move from one class to another This system is large and impersonal Upper class limited and very wealthy 1 2 Middle class includes professionals also becoming unequal upper middle class has much more than lower middle class Lower class lacks wealth and income is too weak politically to exercise power and mostly consists of blacks hispanics and single mothers Working class people who hold regular manual blue collar jobs some may make more than lower middle class citizens but they tend to identify with manual labor Karl Marx examined capitalism an economic system in which the means of production are held largely in private hands and the main incentive for economic activity is the accumulation of pro ts The capitalist class owns the means of production factories machinery and they maximize pro t in competition with other capitalists exploiting their workers in the process 1 Monday March 30 2015 The working class were those who work for and are oppressed by the capitalists Marx believed this exploitation would eventually lead to destruction of the system via revolt by the working class once the working class achieved class consciousness a subjective awareness of common vested interest and the need for collective political action to bring about social change Max Weber insisted our position in the strati cation system re ects some combination of class status and power While each one in uences the other two and the three tend to coincide connect no single factor is deterministic of the others Functionalist Perspective society has a variety of social positions that must be lled by members with appropriate skill ability Rewards such as money and prestige are based on the importance of a position and cannot be distributed equally or people will not be motivated to work Con ict Perspective strati cation is a source of societal tension as the wealthy class use their power income to facilitate exploitation argue that talent really means money because those who go to good schools are the product of the rich and considered more talented than those who go to poor schools Socioeconomic Status SEC a measure of the social class that is based on income education and occupation income the return for your labor and small investments is distributed unevenly with very few americans earning a large majority of available income Wealth includes capital and private property assets debt is even more unevenly distributed top 1 exceeds wealth of bottom 90 Living wage the amount of money that will allow people to have a life Societies that are more developed have less inequality Absolute poverty refers to a minimum level of substance that no family should be expected to live below when there is a lack of means for achieving a minimum level of nutrition absolute poor is 15 as large as the non poor poverty line a money income gure that serves as an of cial de nition of the poor and determines who gets assistance Based on 3x the cost of food but doesn t include shelter clothing healthcare transportation etc Marginal Poverty income 25 above the poverty line 2 Monday March 30 2015 Relative poverty a oating standard of deprivation by which people are judged to be disadvantaged in comparison with the nation as a whole Relative poverty runs through all of society Working poor people who work full part time but their income is below poverty line about 60 68 of absolute poor are working poor Dependent poor poverty due to being dependent on someone who is poor includes children who are most affected by poverty 2 of 5 children are poor Severely poor people living at 50 of poverty threshold Event poverty life situation that plunges people into poverty Feminization of poverty the greater likelihood of women to fall into poverty can be due to death disability or divorce from a husband Welfare public assistance to of cial poverty Wealthfare subsidies given for the non poor middle class incomes and up Explanations for bene ts of poverty societies dirty work will be done jobs are created for those who serve the poor punishment poor as deviants who didn t work hard enough presence of poor guarantees higher status of rich Max Weber saw class as being closely related to life chances people s opportunities to provide themselves with material goods positive living conditions and favorable life experiences Measured by housing education and health Social mobility the movement of individuals or groups from one position in a society s strati cation system to another Visible in the rst half of the last century but stagnant in the last 50 years Intergenerational mobility changes in the social position of children relative to their parents has decreased in the past few generations Intragenerational mobility changes in a social position within a persons adult life Education plays an important role in mobility formal schooling aids in the upward movement although family background in uences ability to go to school education level is directly related to income 3 poor families nancially obstruct an educated family member because they will need that individuals help money middle class families nancially and emotionally support the education of a family Monday March 30 2015 member and their decisions rich families nancially support a family member no matter what direction they go in whites the middle class is the most conscious about education getting further in life Race and ethnicity blacks and hispanics have a harder time being mobile than Gender women s employment opportunities are more limited than mens and the salaries for the jobs given to them limit their social mobility
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