Social Class Inequality
Social Class and Inequality: Video Reviews for Lesson Eight
Introduction
There is no denying that social inequality is getting worse in the US. The Gini index, which is the most widely used measurement of income disparity, used to be 34.6 in 1979; now it sits at above 40 (GINI Index for the United States, 2018). To put this into perspective, the number makes the US the 4th most unequal country—trailing behind Mexico, Chile and Turkey—in 37 major economies surveyed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD Income Distribution Database (IDD): Gini, poverty, income, Methods and Concepts, n.d.). What are the consequences of social inequality in developed countries like the US? Who does it affect? What are the root causes
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As banks require a minimum deposit of hundreds of dollars just to open a bank account, many poor people cannot afford to open one. So when they receive a pay check, they have to go to a check cashing store just to cash it. These stores are conveniently located in poor neighborhoods and charge a hefty fee for providing this service. People from poor neighborhoods also fall prey to loan sharks, tax rebate companies, and rent-to-buy shops, which charge double to triple digits interest rates. When the poor cannot afford monthly installments because of high interests, they have to watch their properties taken away from …show more content…
The root of the problem, according to her, is not that poor people do not work hard enough—the waitresses work longer than the average white collars. The problem is that the minimum wage they receive can barely cover basic necessities such as rent and food. Some might argue that people who earn low wages could get an education to upgrade themselves. The reality is, education is an investment which not everybody can afford. For someone who has to think where the next meal comes from, education becomes a luxury. Ehrenreich confronts a Yale graduate about who the real philanthropists are. She said, “The real philanthropists are those who work for less than they can actually live on, because they are giving their time, energy, talents all the time [to the society].”
This video, like the second one, helps us understand poverty and inequality from a micro level. Many economists and sociologists prescribe education as the magic cure to end inequality. Video clips like this one tell us that if a person cannot support herself while working full-time, her chances of paying for high education while sustaining a living is even
Of Nickel And Dimed: On Getting By In America By Barbara Ehrenreich
622 Words | 3 PagesEhrenreich learns and also hopes to teach her audience, which is anyone who has not experienced a low wage job or does not believe that low paying jobs are very difficult, that all the successors should credit the hardest workers at the bottom of the ladder. She calls “the 'working poor' [...] the major philanthropists of our society [because] they neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high” (120). Ehrenreich simply aims for the privileged audience to understand why they are living such comfortable lives and where all of it comes from. Also, the author implies that the upper class is perfectly kept in balance by the lower class, and that it is owed to the single mothers, poor parents, and uneducated hard workers for others’
Summary Of Class In America By Gregory Mantsios
686 Words | 3 PagesHave you ever wanted to chase the American dream? It might be more impossible than people realize. Gregory Mantsios writes “Class in America-2012” about the growing and obvious class divide in America, yet no one wants to talk about the situation and the effects on the people. I will be analyzing the text and explaining the effects it has on the reader. Throughout the article Mantsios stays consistent with his opinion by providing multiple charts and graphs to back his point.
Sociology Income Inequality
471 Words | 2 PagesMany solutions, such as social investment, early childhood education, job training for young adults are avenues for addressing the shrinking middle class. Many of these ideas have been around since the 1990s, and most know that they will work, however, no one wants to pay the cost of such social investments. Thus, this is a fine example of how one topic, income inequality, can be addressed from two different angles, that of economist and that of sociologists, and what contributes to the inequality can be supported based on what is actually measured. In this specific comparison, due to the differences in disciplines addressing the same issue, the variables measured are completely different and as a result, yield very different results.
The American Dream: Minimum Wage In The United States
1002 Words | 5 PagesThe fact of everyday needs is so expensive that it is hard to meet their basic living expenses. Due to the fact that people have to pay for food, housing, car payments, and many more things to survive the minimum wage should be raised. As said in the article, a guy that supports himself would have to work 93 hours a week to be able to be able to afford the essential needs. The Adams American Dream definition says how they want everyone to achieve and succeed in life which is really hard not being able to with the minimum wage this
Class In America Gregory Mantsios Summary
977 Words | 4 PagesThere is lower, middle, and upper class, but there are also subcategories that fill the gaps in between, like the impoverished and the top one percenters. “Class in America”, written by Gregory Mantsios, addresses the myths and realities about socioeconomic class in America and how they affect American lives. His article highlights the unequal divide that has persisted over the course of history and will continue to manifest in the future. To introduce the existence of this issue, Mantsios states that this country’s citizens “don’t like to talk about class...or class privileges, or class oppression, or the class nature of society” (Mantsios 378). This is the case in America today because people are neglecting to acknowledge the existence of these elusive
Inequalities In America
531 Words | 3 PagesThe American society has almost always experienced a certain amount of inequality that mostly concern three main issues: economic, racial and gender. All these inequalities are similar in some ways. Methods of reducing them can be similar too. There are two main factors that have the potential to decrease the level of all three types of inequality and they are political and social.
Overview Of Barbara Ehrenreich´s Nickle And Dimed
1216 Words | 5 PagesAccording to Katie Johnston, (2014) the working poor are “waitresses, department store clerks, and fast-food workers. They clean office bathrooms and airplane cabins, care for the elderly, and serve hors d’oeuvres at high-end fund-raisers. One in five workers in the state, the majority of them over 25, make $12 an hour or less. As employers squeeze costs, these low-wage earners frequently can only get part-time work without benefits, some with irregular schedules that make second jobs and child care arrangements difficult. They have no protections from having hours cut
Summary Of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel And Dimed
652 Words | 3 PagesI know from personal experience that it is a rough life without being able to get educated and find a high paying job. The minimum wage is not high enough for people to make a living off of if needed. For example, Colleen, one of Ehrenreich’s coworkers at the hotel in Maine says, “I don’t mind, really, because I guess I’m a simple person, and I don’t want what they
Analysis Of Bell Hook's Representing The Poor
212 Words | 1 PagesGrowing up in a middle class home meant that times were difficult. Being one of seven children taught her that poverty was no disgrace. As Hook began college, she noticed that almost everyone portrayed the poor as sneaky, lazy, and dishonest. If items went missing in the dorms, the black and Hispanic
Interdisciplinary Approach To Education
1116 Words | 5 PagesInterdisciplinary Approach to Education and Income Inequality Inequality in American is deeply tied to the origins of the United States. In the present article, using the Interdisciplinary approach to outline the complexities relating to inequality throughout America. The goal is to create a platform that enables the country a path-forward to equal opportunities for every American regardless of race, sex, age, political standing, education, income, and religious belief. Factors analyzed includes education and the distribution of income. Education Inequality in schools has a detrimental effect on kid’s growth and development.
Inequality In Society
1547 Words | 7 PagesThere are many issues in our society like drugs, alcohol, racism, rape, gender workplace diversity, injustice etc. People face many problems due to these issues. The most major issue of our society is inequality which will be highlighted in detail in this essay along with its solution. Inequality means unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions within a society. People judge other people on the basis of their appearance and the accent of their language it.
Slavery And Caste System: Creating A Social Stratification System
1565 Words | 7 PagesSocial stratification is defined as “A social system of inequality that takes into account the differences among individual members of the society and ranks individuals, thus creating a social hierarchy” (Ballantine, 2007). Every society has stratification embedded into its structure, no matter how equal they are (Ballantine, 2007). Stratification can be seen in higher rank, class, wage, leadership ability, strength, race and an array of other things. It could be seen has a positive and a negative thing. In the American society, the stratification system falls under the category of the class system.
Social Class And Social Inequality
1443 Words | 6 PagesSocial 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.
How Does Education Eradicate Poverty?
3150 Words | 13 PagesAs responsible global citizens, we should concern ourselves with the question of whether the poverty and inequality matter. It does. Poverty, defined by Google as “the state of being extremely poor”, is an extremely important problem in the world. Over 1.3 billion people worldwide live on less than 1.25 USD per day, and this number is growing as wars and lack of employment are forcing people into poverty. Poverty is a significant and growing problem worldwide- one that costs the world’s
Class Inequality: Class Conflict And Conflict In Society
793 Words | 4 PagesClass struggle is a conflict in a particular society or between a society which is caused by the lack of unity in one society and different perspective of a different group in a society. It is also called class conflict or class warfare. One social issue of a class struggle is the social inequality. According to study.com, Social inequality is an inequity of social class, award, opportunities, religion, position in the community, social status and at some other point respect in a group of society.
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