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Living the american dream essay
Social class and its effects
Social stratification and social class
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It is difficult to apply the concept of equality to things, since the idea of equality is different from individual to individual, but in a way people do have a general idea of what is equal and what is not. This is seen in American society and how its people try to be as just and equal as possible. In America, we have equal opportunity but mostly in theory. Americans have equal opportunity to peruse happiness,life and freedom, but some individuals do have the upper hand when it comes down who gets head. People who have power, be it wealth or social class, have a greater opportunity for success and achieve the American dream. To have a good opportunity people have to have access to power, not only economical but social and knowledge. That's not to say that people from lower social classes can not achieve succeed. There are many individuals who have come from poor immigrant families and have gain a good social standing and wealth through hard work and dedication, but they have to work harder for those opportunities unlike others that inherit their family's class, and wealth. We are ...
Economic inequality and injustice come in the same hand. Poor people are more likely to experience inequality and injustice. The negative assumptions of poor people are created by the media and politicians. Promoting economic justice by offering people living in poverty some form of social support. Barbara Ehrenreich found in her experiment the workforce for low-wage was difficult. Conley talks about the different types of social inequalities and how they have been unsuccessful.
Growing up in The United States, people are given this idea of an American Dream. Almost every child is raised to believe they can become and do anything they want to do, if one works hard enough. However, a majority of people believe that there is a separation of class in American society. Gregory Mantsios author of “Class in America-2009” believes that Americans do not exchange thoughts about class division, although most of people are placed in their own set cluster of wealth. Also political officials are trying to get followers by trying to try to appeal to the bulk of the population, or the middle class, in order to get more supporters. An interesting myth that Mantsios makes in his essay is how Americans don’t have equal opportunities.
... that they affect one another. A person who lives by a lower income will not have that mines and chances of become wealthy. A person in the other spectrum, which is born into a higher class, will most likely stay wealth. This leads to an endless cycle of generations staying within the working class realm. The likely hood of a person moving up a class is rare but it does exist. People need to be pushed and have a drive to keep going and to keep trying. That is why we are told we have an equal chance in life so we can all strive for better even though in reality we do not all have an equal chance. But nonetheless people should try to become successful even if they never make it in life because a life without purpose, goals, or ambitions is a meaningless life. As humans we need a reason to live, another day for people to take advantage and make the best of it.
The United States is the land of opportunity but we will most likely never reach social equality, which will always be a problem for people in the lower classes. I do think it is harder for children in the lower classes to succeed in school since they have to learn how to blend in with the middle class and the social norms of the middle class on top of getting their diploma or degree. I believe Jay MacLeod did a great job in explaining his theories with his research findings. My views on reaching success in life are very traditional, but
Where would you consider yourself with your ranking in America 's social classes, are you upper class, middle class or even lower class? This is actually very important when it come to you receiving opportunities and in a sense special treatment. I’m referring to of course social inequality which is still very much alive in America and still affects a lot of families mostly in a negative way. This problem in America has grabbed the attention of two authors, Paul Krugman who wrote “Confronting Inequality” and Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy who wrote “The Upside of Income Inequality”. However, they both have different views on inequality Krugman believes that social inequality is only negative while on the other hand, Becker and Murphy believe
Social equality is the concept in which all individuals possess the same fundamental basic liberties, opportunities, moral value/respect, and social benefits. The concept of ‘equality’ has a multiplicity of meanings and definitions, and with the rise of liberalization and democratization around the world ‘social equality’ has become the most predominant. As economic openness creates greater wealth disparities, the parallel rise of democratization has enabled citizens to demand more accountability measures and public welfare services from their governments in order to manage such disparities. Although the movement towards greater social equality has made significant strides with the establishment of equal rights (especially in the 1960s following the civil rights and women rights movement), inequality is still widespread in society among different ethnicities, social classes, and even religions. Inequality is not, however, a characteristic that only encompasses/embodies developing countries, but also embodies developed countries as well.
Many other motifs of equality can be found in Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I have learned through this book that in the Victorian Era, there was a major line between the rich, and those in poverty. We learn this through just the few quotes that I have written. Jane was once poor, but threw her uncle’s death she became rich. Life once as a beggar, now able to give to those that beg. When Jane was poor, she was treated like dirt, but because she became rich she was treated with more respect. Thusly, there as much segregation in standings, in the book Jane Eyre.
Even though people are created equally, there is a very difficult to change the class you were born into. Not only because of a lack of easy upward mobility, but also because people can become content almost anywhere. If someone is born into poverty there is very little likelihood of them wanting to leave their safety-net, or even seeing an opportunity for a way out of their impoverished life. Complacency and a lack of motivation are things that are more prominent in recent generations, and so these issues also affect the poor. Although many in poverty are hard working people, they can barely get by because of the lack of good full-time work. People have to work two to three jobs just to make enough to live on. The fact of the matter is that whose who need to work can find a job, but will it be a job that can sustain them? In all likelihood, no. Businesses cannot afford to pay their employees enough to live
America is one of the wealthiest nations on earth with having a high inequality than other industrialized country. Inequality exists in income, wealth, power and education. Persons who are legally and socially poor in the United states tend to stay in a cycle through life, not always by choice but because they are given fewer opportunities, education and tools to achieve success. Poverty class has a much larger income gap than the upper class, the American Dream is lessens through opportunity and is shown through statistics.
Inequality as previously mentioned is a subject that gets debated when brought up and in any debate there is two sides. In class we have discussed both side of the story of inequality, and it has give me a better perspectives of income inequality. When discussion income inequality, we brought up the concept of the economic pie in which states that the economic pie is a reference to the way income gets distributed among the lower, middle, and higher class of America. So the concept of the economic pie states that the rich is getting richer, so they are
Income inequality has affected American citizens ever since the American Dream came into existence. The American Dream is centered around the concept of working hard and earning enough money to support a family, own a home, send children to college, and invest for retirement. Economic gains in income are one of the only possible ways to achieve enough wealth to fulfill the dream. Unfortunately, many people cannot achieve this dream due to low income. Income inequality refers to the uneven distribution of income and wealth between the social classes of American citizens.
In 1963, President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, making it unlawful to discriminate against a worker on the basis of sex. Since that time, the wage gap between men and women in the United States has narrowed by just 15 cents, now being 74 cents, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Lots of people see the bad of the lower class, but do people ever see the good? They work harder than most people in the U.S. They value family time over money. They want equality for them and they want to be seen as normal human beings. If equality is in our Constitution then why do we have people not treated equally? Let’s start looking behind the scenes and let’s see what is really going on.
We live in a world full of many societal issues. The aspects that determine whether one will have a successful or unsuccessful life is due to their characteristics such as race, gender, and social status. In the book Is Everyone Really Equal, Ozlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo’s exigence is to express the following issues and to encourage the reader to work upon changing the world through social injustice, oppression, power, and community.
Money can give people a lot opportunities and privilege. Financially privileged people have no trouble getting materialistic things such as big houses, expensive cars, and jewelry. Being privileged can also provide better scholastic education as well as respect. On the other hand, a lack of money, as a person might guess, limits opportunity and lower a person’s status on the privilege pole. In order for an underprivileged person to have all of those things, they have to work hard to get to get the luxuries of nice houses, cars, and jewelry. As far as education goes, the underprivileged might not go to the best schools but they get an education that will prove to be more valuable in life; they learn to earn respect, appreciate what they have and how to survive with just the necessities and what’s really important in life. So when a person looks at each group and tries to decided with one gets the most out of life, they will see that underprivileged individuals get so much more out of life than a person who came up in affluence and privilege.