The inequality and social division might exist everywhere. Within a society, there are many people who have been divided into various categories, according to the significant characteristics, including class, ethnicity and gender (Payne, 2006). Regarding to my own life experience, the social division will be discussed is the middle class in Hong Kong. This essay would take the point of view of the middle class in Hong Kong and would discuss both positive and negative impacts on author’s life experience. Although class has negative impacts on my own life experience, which is the attitude toward purchasing housing; but there are greater extent on the positive effects on lifestyle, mainly focusing on leisure time and decision of education. The essay will first explain some background information of the middle class in Hong Kong, then the negative impacts will be discussed and finally the positive effects.
Hong Kong is a capitalist society, which the economy regards to free and open trades and less taxation to both domestic households and foreign investment and business (Hong Kong Economic
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For elementary occupations, the 50th percentile of weekly hours is 51, while the 50th percentile of professionals, managers and administrators is 42 (Census and Statistics Department, 2013). As my parents are working in a position of managers, they have regular office hour and holidays. My family could have regular leisure time together in weekends, such as having Southern Chinese style morning or afternoon tea in Chinese restaurant, which is called Yum Cha in Chinese. Comparing to some occupational groups, such as supermarket and convenience shop, and Chinese restaurant, the range of 50th percentile of weekly working hours is from 54 to 60 (Census and Statistic Department, 2013). Therefore, my family could obtain more leisure time than the working
The way we view each other in terms of finance, education, and family aspects depends on a person’s social class. Students from lower backgrounds usually experience difficulty in the educational system. The educational standards of their family’s life differ from those in the higher classes because teachers teach according to the student. Meaning, not only does having a particular social class already separate you in terms of the educational system, but it also determines how and what you learn. From personal experience I’ve learned how to see from the perspective of a student who is of a lower social class than majority of his peers and teachers.
Class is divided into the middle, upper, working, and
The largest if not only factor of class is wealth; how much income a family gets. To disprove the myths many more realities are listed. The first being, “There are enormous differences in economic status of American citizens. ”(334). Perhaps the most important reality states, “From cradle to grave, class standing has a significant impact on our chances of survival.
Research shows that lower class citizens face more hardships to better their lives than those who are more stable. When living in the lower class, they must overcome obstacles, while trying to get help from the government, and face the opposition–the
There 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
Thematic Essay- Society and Class Society and class is an important theme in “The Outsiders”, a novel written by S.E Hinton. “The Outsider”, is a book about two gangs, the Greasers and the socs who are rivals because of their economic and social differences. Throughout the book, S.E Hinton outlines that Socs, who have a better economic status are unaware of all of the other aspects in life and feel superior over the Greasers. In book, The Outsiders, it 's shown that a human society can be separated a society because of society and wealth.
The Vertical layered hierarchy dimension of John Porter’s Vertical Mosaic introduced social theory through class, power and status. Class is difficult to define and usually objectively determined by socioeconomic status, income and at times relational configurations. Normalization and uniformity of possessions created a middle class stereotype within Canada, which John Porter broke through outlining the hierarchy that class actually is. In fact, when the book was written, approximately only 3% of Canadians
Being born into a particular family determines how well off you are. Class in America determines the people that influence you, and the better opportunities you are exposed to. In Gregory Mantsios writing of “Class in America” you can understand the many differences between class and how one might have better success. Mantsios shows three profiles of three different people born into different classes. One of the profiles shows how the lifestyle might be born into a wealthy family.
The American dream is a dream of a land in which one can prosper with ambition and hard work. This idea has created many illusions for some because in reality the American dream is proven to be something that is rarely achieved. No individual is guaranteed success or destined for failure, but it is apparent that women, people of color, and those born into poverty will face greater obstacles than others, despite being a greater part of the American population. An author that tackles the issue of class in the United States is Gregory Mantsios. In his essay, “Class in America-2009”, Mantsios aims to prove that class affects people’s lives in drastic ways.
In the story “The Upside of Income Inequality”, Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy effectively express’s the importance and need for income inequality in our society. Furthermore, Holly Ellyatt’s newspaper article Income Inequality: Is It Good For Everyone? serves to also point out that economic success and greater productivity is linked to “income inequality”. Although it may seem extremely unfair for someone to make up to two hundred and fifty times as much money as someone else, this notion of “income inequality” actually benefits the society as a whole by encouraging others to work much harder in life and better themselves and their education.
3.1 How income inequality affect on people live in America. The income gap in America affects people, who live in this country. The issue has a strong impact in America’s society; in particular, the nutritional disparity between rich and poor people. In USA, the food gap becomes the top signal for the class distinction, but it used to be clothing or fashion. The food inequality in America is not only influencing the poverty, it is also cost hundreds of billions of dollar per year because of Non Communicable Diseases (NDCs) (Ferdman, 2014).
Introduction Social inequality means the unequal distribution of income, unequal access to education, opportunity, wealth and power in a society. It goes hand in hand with the social stratification. It is feature is the exist the inequality of opportunities and rewards for different social statuses within a group or society. There are two points to measure social inequality is including the inequality of conditions and the opportunities for each people.
Marriage and Family Functionalist perspective Family is a type of social institution concerned with the support, care, protection, and socialization of the children. The functionalist perspective on family focuses on the functions of the family, the functions being the socialization of children, providing love and companionship, regulation of sexual behaviour, and the occupation of various economic roles. Functionalists also look at how a family relates to the rest of society and how it helps maintain it. According to the functionalist view, the economic functions of a family include production and consumption, and the inheritance of wealth and other material assets from one generation to the other.
Leisure time can be described as “free time”, it is the time that we can spend doing anything we want like studying, working, or playing sports, etc. Some individuals may have more leisure time than others, and activities during leisure time can vary, depending on the individual’s interests. Making a time map of our daily lives, from Sunday to Monday, shows our leisure time and what we do during the leisure time. Activities can be affected by many socio-cultural factors such as gender, hegemony, power, race, etc. However, from the time map, socioeconomic status (SES), or social class, is a factor that is most dominant in how I spend my leisure time and could also be seen affecting others’ leisure time.
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.