Social Stratification Analysis

The American Dream is so essential to our country as it is an honor to reach your goals and make it a reality. The American Dream is the national ethos that people’s lives would be better and more abundant with many opportunities. The American Dream was more accessible to attain back in the days, however, changed over the years. Although the “American Dream” is still possible, many people, minorities are affected by the lack of improvement in social mobility in our society. The American Dream is still alive by being able to live a middle-class lifestyle and by obtaining it through perseverance and hard-work. Within social mobility, many people fail to have a sense of the realization of the American Dream because of the fewer advantages and more problems minorities have to struggle through. Therefore, our social class affects our ability to realize the American Dream because we face challenges to make ends meet, intersectionality and education because of high status.

Living wage reflects what income required for a household to meet their basic needs, once government transfers have been added to the family's income and deductions have been subtracted.

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, social scientist, sociologist, historian, journalist and revolutionary socialist. Marx was born on 5 May 1818 in Germany and died on 14 March 1883 in London. Karl Marx is regarded to be one of the founding fathers of Sociology. Capitalism, in layman’s term means “an economic, political, and social system in which property, business, and industry are privately owned, directed towards making the greatest possible profits for successful organizations and people.” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2014). Capitalism, according to Karl Marx is divided into two major social classes: the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. The Bourgeoisie, which is the minority of the class system, own the means of production such as land, machinery, factories and raw materials whereas the Proletariat, which is the majority of the class system, having no means of their own production and have to work to earn wage for a living.

labor –at the centre of his analysis of human history. He was able to show that the

I believe social classes have defined our society in many ways. In America, they separate people into three different classes: the upper class, middle class, and the lower or working class. Based on wealth and various occupations, social classes determine the population’s status in society. Social classes today define individuals and influence their actions. Although people born in a certain class may choose to stay there, they also have the choice of leaving. I think heritage, circumstances, and choices all define a person’s social class.

Marxism is an economic and social system. Holland Arrowsmith explains Marxism as a term which refers to “a hugely diverse set of social, economic, philosophical, historical and cultural theories”. Several theories such as social, economical, political and critical theories have been derived from Marxism philosophy. Marxism advocates equality amongst the class structure of society. Marxism is divided into two fundamental classes. According to Marx there are only two classes which exist: Bourgeoisie, which means powerful or dominant class and Proletariat, which means the peasant or working classes. Bourgeoisie, which gains the power, defines superstructure “including all social and legal institution, all political and educational systems, all religions and all art” (Bressler, 162), and articulate the ideology which is based on profits of bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie ideology leads to alienation of individuals, especially proletariats. This bourgeoisie ideology creates the clash between the two classes. Marx supported the working class and their victory over dominant class. Marxism believes in providing equal opportunity to the working class as that are available to the

Social class groups individual persons into class hierarchy which is determined by person’s income, education, wealth, social connection, and job profession. Social class classifies people into spectrum of class such as lower class, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class, and upper class. Depending on which class an individual falls in affects earnings, education, respect, success, status, family life, health, job occupation, and social connection. An individual that lies in higher part of class spectrum gets more opportunities and has better lives than an individual that lies in lower part of class spectrum that does not get opportunities and struggles in lives. The amount of money

Sexuality is often defined as the way an individual identifies their sexual orientation, desires and with whom, however human sexuality does not tend to fall into neat categories. Many philosophers such as Karl Marx have built upon theories regarding human nature, including our sexuality to further explain who is in control of power, who is being marginalized and how human sexuality intersects with other axes of power such as race, gender and class that produces societies norms. Although Marx did not have much to say in regards to sex, he believed that human nature, including our sexuality, is shaped by society and as a result changes historically.

It is argued that social inequality occurs because of the conflict between the upper-class and the working-class, or as Marx defines it, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. Based on the Manifesto of the Communist Party (Marx and Engels, 1848), the divergence emerges because the aim of the Bourgeoisie is to obtain a surplus-value that is produced by the work of the Proletariat. On the other side, the Bourgeoisie provides the Proletariat with the minimum required, such as a place to live and a minimum wage, in order to keep the society under control and avoid a rebellion. However, Marx did predict a revolt of the working-class that would eventually lead to a communist regime. When it comes to applying this theoretical approach to reality, it is evident to notice that no global revolt in regards to capitalism has occurred. On the contrary, the capitalist society that Marx describes has only become greater in the global society. The disparity between the elite and the populace grows continuously, and the wealth of the first group surpasses the wealth of the second one. The elite has made the working-class into a class of consumption who nourishes its capital gain. This leads on to the global issue of social hierarchy. It establishes inequalities within economy, education and health that the poorest try to outdo, becoming unconsciously even more depended on the capitalist system, because they

Socioeconomic class is a group that consists of the same background on income, occupation, and educational level in the society which causes inequalities to different social classes.

Social classes are a form of social stratification that refers to the existence of structured inequalities between individuals and groups in society. A social class is a group of people of comparable status, power and wealth which are usually classified as upper class, middle class, and lower class. For each class, there are some specific opportunities available that influence their social life. We can understand about the particularity of the chances through unequal distribution of these opportunities between individuals in social classes. In here belonging to a social class seems to be an obstacle for some individuals to obtain equal opportunity, unlike upper class people. Therefore, in a stratified society, the individual’s opportunities are always determined by his or her social class. In this essay, I will be arguing that even though mobility exists in the social class system, the opportunity to change status is relatively open for everyone but the distribution of opportunities among the members of a social class is not relatively equal to all. I will demonstrate this point by showing how participation of an individual in a specific social class will decide the opportunities in terms of attaining education and achieving a well-paid job.

In the Communist manifesto, a well known quote of Marx, “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” This is introductory to the first part of the pamphlet and a conclusion to Marx’s theory about class struggle. Marx’s highly structured on how the class struggle emerges and affects the development of a society.

In the Caribbean, each territory has a unique social stratification systems which have been developed over the past centuries. This encouraged the people of these many cultures within the region to advance their social status - or his/her ‘social well-being,’ and the status of their family through the movement of social mobility. In this paper, it is my contention that social mobility is possible in the Caribbean since it allows persons to move in the social stratification system; secondly – to briefly address the current situation of social mobility within the Caribbean region, specifically in the countries of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana. And finally, that social mobility has shaped better opportunities in the Caribbean. In order to support these claims, I will discuss the characterisitcs of social moblity, while providing the necessary examples.

Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim both displayed very differing views on the division of labour, and they each have a different proposal on how a society should be ordered. In this essay, I will be highlighting on how Marx believed in a classless society, and how Durkheim believed in structural functionalism, where a society will adjust to achieve a stable state. Furthermore, I will be relating both of their views to my home country Singapore, and why Durkheim’s theory of structural functionalism will be more applicable to the society of Singapore.

According to Edwards et al. (2006) Marx thought that within capitalism there would be an increased divide between the bourgeoisie class and the proletariat class in the future. The proletariats are lower of the two classes, the people who have to work for wages in order to survive. The bourgeoisie are the people in society who controlled and owned the means of production in a capitalist system. Marx believed this divide would happen because the workers are dependent on their wages as a means of survival where as one of the employer’s objectives is to lower wages in order to reduce costs. This clash of interests would inevitably bring on a resistance from the proletariats. “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win” (Marx and Engels 1848) chpt, 4. As we can see from this quote that was written in the communist manifesto by Marx himself, It is clear that he believed that as a result of this oppression by the bourgeoisie the proletarians would revolt against the capitalist system and this would result in a