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Social class theory
Social institutions affected by class
Case studies on social class
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Wealth
Wealth is often defined as something that has monetary or exchange value, however possessing great amounts of wealth can also lead to powerful relationships, economical power, as well as political influence. Zweig argues that “economic relationships are the foundation of classes” (Zweig, 17). These classes can be segmented into groups based on power and other key factors operating throughout society, from which the elite create a network of political and cultural leaders. Canada has a wide landscape of class and its most elite capitalists create the ruling class. Properties of the ruling class can be seen within the 100 wealthiest people in Canada.
The 100 wealthiest
The 100 wealthiest people in Canada are comprised of multiple families and estates. The monetary values that these individuals hold range from tens of Billions to hundreds of
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By comparing these national averages of income to the income of the wealthiest Canadians, the difference is astonishing. While the average earnings of Canadians mostly correspond to the middle and upper middle class families, those not within that segment are drastically behind. The Globe and Mail wrote an article which states: “Canada's 86 wealthiest have as much as the 11.4 million poorest”. This statement alone, shows the massive difference of wealth between the wealthiest and the poorest deciles. The difference is not only in monetary terms, but more in the power that these 86 individuals hold against the poorest. Zweig makes an interesting comparison regarding this matter by stating: “Class is about the power some people have over the lives of others, and the powerlessness most people experience as a result” (Zweig, 8). This quote by Zweig can be seen as the powerlessness that the poorest deciles of Canadians face against the wealthy
Tencer, Daniel. "Income Inequality: Canada Does Surprisingly Little To Reduce Wage Gap. “The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, Winter 2013. Web. 02 Apr. 2014.
According to Gregory Mantsios many American people believed that the classes in the United States were irrelevant, that we equally reside(ed) in a middle class nation, that we were all getting richer, and that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in life. But what many believed, was far from the truth. In reality the middle class of the United States receives a very small amount of the nation's wealth, and sixty percent of America's population receives less than 6 percent of the nation's wealth, while the top 1 percent of the American population receives 34 percent of the total national wealth. In the article Class in America ( 2009), written by Gregory Mantsios informs us that there are some huge differences that exist between the classes of America, especially the wealthy and the poor. After
In his essay “Land of Opportunity” James W. Loewen details the ignorance that most American students have towards class structure. He bemoans the fact that most textbooks completely ignore the issue of class, and when it does it is usually only mentions middle class in order to make the point that America is a “middle class country. This is particularly grievous to Loewen because he believes, “Social class is probably the single most important variable in society. From womb to tomb, it correlates with almost all other social characteristics of people that we can measure.” Loewen simply believes that social class usually determine the paths that a person will take in life. (Loewen 203)
In this paper, Gregory Mantsios compares and contrasts class in America. He uses facts to support his point that things are getting better for the upper class, while things are increasingly getting worse for the middle and lower classes. Throughout the paper, he demonstrates comparing and contrasting by using “myth” versus “reality”.
(p1) Broadly speaking, class is about economic and social inequality… (p6) We have a tendency for groups of advanced people to congregate together, and groups of disadvantaged people to congregate so that inequalities persist from generation to generation.
In Mantsios’ “Class in America” he provides us with four myths about the United States. In one of these myths the idea is brought up that the United States is, at its core, a classless society. It is also states that whether rich or poor, everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. The myth also states that health care and education are provided to everyone regardless of their financial stability. This idea about a classless society is exactly what Mantsios claims it to be, a myth. It is untrue to state that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, and to believe that whatever differences exist in financial standing are insignificant. There are clear distinctions between different groups of people depending on their economic and social standing.
The highest earning fifth of U.S. families earned 59.1% of all income, while the richest earned 88.9% of all wealth. A big gap between the rich and poor is often associated with low social mobility, which contradicts the American ideal of equal opportunity. Levels of income inequality are higher than they have been in almost a century, the top one percent has a share of the national income of over 20 percent (Wilhelm). There are a variety of factors that influence income inequality, a few of which will be discussed in this paper. Rising income inequality is caused by differences in life expectancy, rapidly increases in the incomes of the top 5 percent, social trends, and shifts in the global economy.
In the United States there are four social classes : the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class. Of these four classes the most inequality exists between the upper class and the lower class. This inequality can be seen in the incomes that the two classes earn. During the period 1979 through the present , the growth in income has disproportionately grown.The bottom sixty percent of the US population actually saw their real income decrease in 1990 dollars. The next 20% saw medium gains. The top twenty percent saw their income increase 18%. The wealthiest one percent saw their incomes rise drastically over 80%. As reported in the 1997 Center on Budget's analysis , the wealthiest one percent of Americans ( 2.6 million people) received as much after-tax income in 1994 as the bottom 35 percent of the population combined (88 million people). But in 1977 the bottom 35 percent had about twice as much after tax income as the top one percent. These statistics further show the disproportional income growth among the social classes. The gr...
Social class is a group of people who rank closely in property, prestige, and power. Within these social classes exist some properties of class level that are characteristic of their ranking. The first of these is property. Property consists of furniture, jewelry, bank accounts, and other materials that can be quantified into monetary value. (Henslin, 2014) Basically, they are things that can be quantified to add up in quantified value end up un a sum of monetary value. This value is termed wealth. This is different from income. Income is known as the flow of money. Prestige is the next characteristic looked at when determining social class. Prestige is the value which different groups of people are judged with. (Henslin, 2014) Different occupations within society offer varying levels of prestige. The final aspect looked at when determining class is power. Power is defined as the ability to exert your will within society. (Henslin, 2014) The reason to review this is because different classes of society all maintain these aspects at higher or lower degrees, with the upper tier having the
Social and economic class is something we as Americans like to push into the back of our minds. Sometimes recognizing our class either socially or economically can almost be crippling. When individuals recognize class, limitations and judgment confront us. Instead, we should know it is important to recognize our class, but not let it define and limit us. In the essay, “Class in America”, Gregory Mantsios, founder and director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education at the School of Professional Studies, brings to light the fact that Americans don’t talk about class and class mobility. He describes the classes in extremes, mainly focusing on the very sharp divide between the extremely wealthy and extremely poor. In contrast, George
Inequality exist and is high in America because the amount of income and wealth that is distributed through power. In America the income distribution is very inequality and the value of a person wealth is based on their income with their debts subtracted. “As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers)” (Domhoff, 2011). In contrary the poor do not get ahead and the rich get more. Americans are judged and placed in class categories through their home ownership which translates to wealth. Americans social class is often associated with their assets and wealth. “People seek to own property, to have high incomes, to have interesting and safe jobs, to enjoy the finest in travel and leisure, and to live long and healthy lives” (Domhoff, 2011). Power indicates how these “values” are not distributed equally in American society. Huge gains for the rich include cuts in capital gains and dividends and when tax rates decrease for the tiny percent of Americans income is redistributed. Taxes directly affect the wealth and income of Americans every year.
In terms of class, one in four people or 4.9 million people lived in households under the low economic threshold (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2009-10), meaning this significant amount of people living in Australia are in the working or underclass division of society. Due to this vast majority of citizens lacking in class status, their power is also lower when it comes to the society they live in as class directly links with power, therefore demonstrating the social inequalities
Wealth inequality is the uneven distribution of resources in a given state or population, which can also be called the wealth gap. The sum of one’s total assets excluding the liabilities equates the person’s wealth also known as the net worth. Investments, residents, cash, real estates and everything owned by an individual are their assets.In reality, the United States is among the richest countries in the world, though a few people creating a major gap between the richest, the middle class and the poor control most of its wealth. For more than a quarter of a century, only the rich American families have shown an increase to their net worth.Thisis a worrying fact for the less fortunate in the country and calls for assessment (Baranoff, 2015).
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
Kerbo, H. R. (2012). Social stratification and inequality: class conflict in historical, comparative, and global perspective (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.