02 Sep 2nd coming
There is growing inequality of income distribution in the United States since the early 1980s (Savage & Mouncey, 2016). The income of the lower half and lower groups in the social class stagnated and continues to decline while the income of the top half increases. The income inequality forms the basis of social class as postulated by contemporary sociologists, such as Max Weber. Social class is defined as the level of a person’s education, income, and occupation. Social class influences the lives of individuals to a greater extent; the social class theories includes the Marx’s theory and Weber’s theory, while the categories of class include the upper, middle and the poor., and Iimpacts of social class to an individual influences their physical health, mental health, family life, education, religion, politics, and crime.
Background
Social class is concerned with the differences in the economic status of people in a country. A close observer and researchers in the United States will be quick to note the big gap of possessions and living standards of living in the society. There is a huge variance in the access to social facilities such as health and educations across different people in the country. The variations of possessions and access to social facilities form the background of social classes and have a significant influence on a person’s life. For example, statistics affirm that ten percent of children from the main developed countries live in poverty while in the United States the percentage is higher at twenty percent (Fiske & Markus, 2012). The differences in resources and thoughts lead to the concept of inequality, such as income inequality.
Social class is significant in the life of an individual. Sociologist Annette Lareau posits that social has a significant impact on families, particularly children. For example, a child growing up in a family of highly educated parents is likely to have more opportunities growing up than children coming from poor families. Children whose parents occupy higher paying jobs and holding higher degrees are more likely to obtain college degrees themselves; however, such opportunities are limited in poor neighborhoods (Fiske & Markus, 2012). Sociologist Annette Lareau introduced the concept of concerted cultivation which is a style of parenting focusing on enhancing the talents of children. For instance, the top half of the social classes are likely to provide their children with opportunities such as extra tutoring and dancing lessons, while such resources are available to the poor. Comment by Author: revise – missing word – social what? Comment by Author: revise – missing word – did you mean “…while such resources are NOT available to the poor”?
Social Class Theories
One of the early social theories is Marx’s social theory of class. Karl Marx argues that the sources of social classes and statuses in the society ids the mode of production (Lenski, 2013). According to Marx, each mode of production results corelates to the different types of classes and groups where one group controls production process, while the remaining groups provide the sources of labor and services to the principal class. Karl Marx identifies the dominant class the one that controls the production process and produces ideas on how to undertake the production process; therefore, it institutes a type of culture and prevailing political doctrine which governs the rest of the society. Comment by Author: revise Comment by Author: vague pronoun – what does “it” specifically refer to?
Weber’s theory of social class is one of the contemporary social theories which strongly oppose Marx’s theory. Max Weber opposed the Marx’s theory of class by arguing that social classes have an insignificant influence on political development in the modern societies and further established that there exist other factors that play a significant role such as cultural norms and nationalism. Max Weber posited that the notion of social classes can be greatly attributed to impersonal income dissimilarities across different individuals (Lenski, 2013). The every increasing income inequality is becoming a primary political issue in the developed nations including the U.S., providing more evidence to the source of social classes as proposed by Weber. Today, social class is defined by one’s economic status, particularly income and living standards. Comment by Author: illustrate
Categories of Social Classes
There are different categories of social classes as discussed by various social scientists. While there are debates and controversies regarding the theory of class, the majority of the social scientists agree onto three primary types of social classes. Social scientists commonly postulate three classes;: upper (elite), middle and lower (working) classes (Fiske & Markus, 2012). Each social class consists of different indicators and social beliefs respective to that class. There are different life chances and influence that the type of social class can be attributed to the person’s life and the family underpinnings. The social classes will be categorized into two broad categories:; the upper and middle class and the lower and working class. Comment by Author: reword for clarity of ideas
The elite and the middle class is one of the categories of social class. The elite class is mostly associated with individuals who have acquired wealth and also have vast control over organizations. The elite class consists of groups of individuals who have high salaries such as CEOs of large corporations and who have achieved high rank through their professions (Fiske & Markus, 2012). The middle class consists of individuals who have considerable sources of wealth and hold some high educational background and occupy the managerial positions in the most institution. The people from the elite and middle classes have higher life chances and are likely to succeed in life and could lead a healthy lifehealthier lives than people from the lower classes.
The poor and workings class represent the other category of social class. The laborers class is mostly identified as people who do not have college degrees. They are subjected to engage in doing unskilled service work in society such as being laborers in factories, sales clerks and nursing home staff (Fiske & Markus, 2012). Social class has a higher negative significance to people from the lower classes, hereby the poor and working class. The poor are the people who are working full time with wedges below the poverty line. In America, the poor include the citizens working at social services, delivery services, and the restaurant workers (Fiske & Markus, 2012). The poor individuals have reduced access to health facilities and high enumeration jobs and are thus, exposed to diseases, injuries, and most significant crimes and criminal activities. Comment by Author: explain what you mean by this Comment by Author: reword
Impacts of Social Classes
Social class is a strong determinant of physical health. Social class is closely related to environmental hazards that affect one’s health status by increasing the risk of contracting diseases or ease of sustaining an injury. The environmental hazards that are influenced by the social class include access to healthy produce and good diet, exercise facilities, and health promotion programs (Savage & Mouncey, 2016). People from the lower socioeconomic classes suffer from poor health because of high exposure to environmental hazards and including lower levels oflimited access to health insurances. The higher rate of illnesses among people in the lower socioeconomic classes results from the higher exposure to the environmental hazards; for example, poorer neighborhoods have more fast foods chains than grocery stores which can lead to conditions such as heart diseases.
Social class affects the mental health status of people. Mental health refers to one’s status of psychological well-being or the existence of one or more mental illness. People from different classes have access to a different type of treatment and encounter different mental health stressors. For instance, individuals from the lower socioeconomic classes encounter increased economic pressure as it relates to their daily sustenance and well-being, whereas individuals for the upper socioeconomic classes, on the other hand, experience stress from their intense social pressures from their elite circles (Savage & Mouncey, 2016). Access to mental health intervention varies widely across different social classes, with upper-class people having easy and increased access than people from lower socioeconomic classes. Comment by Author: revise wording Comment by Author: access to what? be specific
Another impact of social class is childbearing and household composition. Social class influence the family life of people including their marriages, childbearing, and household composition. In the United States, there is a higher probability of divorce from people in the lower socioeconomic statuses than for those in the middle or upper classes. The higher rate of divorce can be greatly attributed to high financial stress the couple from lower classes face (Larea & Conley, 2008). The birth rates from people in the lower and developing countries are very higher as compared to the wealthier nations, showing how income and wealth influence the shaping of family structures. The family composition is also affected by social class with single-parent families often associated with lower social class because of increasing costs and at times, lower earnings.
Educational attainment is also affected by social class. Members of the upper socioeconomic classes acquire advanced degrees from more prestigious schools than members of the lower class. Many social scientists argue that individuals from the upper social class have access to the financial means to attend prestigious schools and are more likely to acquire higher and advanced educations (Lenski, 2013). Social class can also be indirectly associated with education whereby, the people from upper classes and having advanced education are more likely to land employment from prestigious jobs with higher salaries. The stratification in education contributes to stratification in the social class. The educational inequality is one of the factors which contributed to the divisions of classes among different generations. Comment by Author: rephrase
Social class affects the religious affiliations of people. The socioeconomic status of people influences their religious affiliations and practices, with, more focus on the practices than the degree of religiosity. Members for the lower socioeconomic classes are mostly associated with the fundamentalist religions and sect-like groups while people from middle and upper classes are associated with formal churches. For instance, American Presbyterians and Episcopalians consist of members from the middle and upper social classes (Liu, 2011). Social class, however, is not correlated to religiosity, the measure of how religious a person is. Income, which s closely related to social class, influence the denomination of a person. Statistics reveal that there are clear differences in the average income by religion. For instance, Judaism was the highest earning religion with an average income of 72,000 United States (U.S.) dollars, while Unitarianism earned an average of 56,000 U.S. dollars in the year 2000 (Liu, 2011). Comment by Author: revise for clarity of ideas Comment by Author: per family or individually?
Social class affects the political participation and influence of a person. Members of the higher socioeconomic groups have higher political participation and political influence. Social scientists argue that the people holding the higher political offices and positions belong to the higher socioeconomic classes which further the impact of class on American politics (Liu, 2011). The wealthy and well-educated individuals from the higher socioeconomic classes are more likely to vote and to sponsor political activities than people from the lower classes. The trends in American politics indicate that people from middle and higher social classes have higher political involvement than people from the lower classes. Researchers regard the people who vote as members of social classes to be participating in identity politics.
Social class affects crime and criminal justice. The mMajority of the established criminological theories affirm that there is a close correlation between lower class lifestyle and crime. Many of the criminologist theories have based their arguments on the assumption that crime is primarily a lower-class phenomenon. People from the lower socioeconomic classes struggle to make a living and live in neighborhoods with less or no security which may influence some of the members to engage in criminal activities to make ends meet. The Criminal Justice System in the United States has been observed to incarcerates the people from the lower socioeconomic backgrounds than the upper-class group (Lenski, 2013). While wealth and power cannot preclude arrest, statistics affirm that there is a higher probability that people from the upper classes will not be sentenced to prison. Comment by Author: revise – it may help to read the passage out loud
Conclusion
Social class influences the life of an individual including physical health, mental health, family life, education, religion, politics, and crime; while the theories of the class include Marx’s theory and the Weber theory, and the types of social classes are the upper, middle, and the poor. (fragment – NOTE: the semicolon functions like a period, not a comma, and should divide complete sentences) People from different classes have different life chances and likelihoods of success as provided by the economic status of the class. Individuals from higher socioeconomic classes have a higher likelihood of success in their endeavors than people from the lower class of people. The different types of social class theories argue on the different sources of social class with Marx proposing the mode of production and Weber proposing income inequality. Social class tends to limit the chances of people from lower classes and exposes them to life-threatening situations including diseases and crime, than while people from the upper classes…. (fill in the blank as to how upper and middle class people are affected).
References
Fiske, S. T., & Markus, H. R. (2012). Facing social class: How societal rank influences interaction. New York: Russell Sage Foundation
Larea, A., & Conley, D. (2008). Social class: How does it work? New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Lenski, G. (2013). Power and privilege: A theory of social stratification. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Liu, W. M. (2011). Social class and classism in the helping professions: Research, theory, and practice. Thousand Oaks, Caliph: SAGE.
Savage, M., & Mouncey, P. (2016). Social Class in the 21st Century. International Journal of Market Research, 58(2), 335-338. doi: 10.2501/ijmr-2016-019
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