Age Stratification

The demographic characteristics of the senior population has been changing over time. The rise in diversity and the geographic placement of seniors can provide an opportunity to examine their use of the social program SNAP. Characteristics of food insecurity such a geography and race correlate with higher rates of food insecurity and as these same characteristics continue to grow in the senior population. Since seniors have the lowest rates of SNAP participation versus other age groups, and their rates of food insecurity continue to grow it is important to examine what characteristics impact the likelihood of SNAP take up among this population.

The businesses that people bought from these companies were most likely forced into it. There were monopolies that were created during this time and even today that have forced people into giving up their old cheaper living styles for a more “expensive” living style. These men were so wealthy to the point where it was hard to imagine what they would ever do with this money. Most people would think, “Well then their workers should really benefit from working there, right?” very wrong. Most of the men and even children that worked in this environments were used basically as slaves; forced to work harder and faster, but not too fast for the fear of creating higher standards of the managers that looked over them. Many machines came into place during this era. Normally people would assume that this would help workers, but in reality, it made their lives significantly harder than it already was. There were no longer “skilled workers” only “skilled machines” that took over the role of the previous workers. This forced them to work harder and faster and put many people out their jobs. These men created today’s standards of how working conditions should be.

In today’s society, the work industry is comprised of numerous generations from baby boomers to millennia’s. Due to reasons ranging from increased cost of living to political policies, Americans are being forced to work longer in order to obtain the social security benefits they’ve contributed to during their careers. Each generation has certain generational influences such as war times and civil rights for the baby boomers and social media and the technology boom for the millennia’s. One constant that has not changed, however, is that the average American has to work for a living, and with the evolution of the US economy, they are having to work longer and are retiring later.

Factory conditions were terrible. The fumes, the loud noise of machines, and poor lighting. Also the machines did not have safety devises incase of emergencies. The people who worked in the factories were men, women and children aging 5 and above. However, this period had a vast growth of a new middle class that were now as rich as the aristocrats and sadly the factory workers had little economical and political power which made them bond together and try to improve their working and living conditions.

Throughout history, the circumstances that people were born into were not equal. While some people were born on hospitable lands where people and animals could flourish, others were born on desolate and isolated lands that proved unsuitable for livestock. These uncontrollable circumstances as well as others, such as climate, created the different types of lifestyles that people have adopted. Through the book Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond illustrates the five themes of world history by explaining how a chain of effects starting from the first people interacting with their given environments and resources led to how they live in the present. While for the world it may seem apparent that one group of people seems to have the upper hand in the social hierarchy, Diamond shows his view that, in actuality, it only became this way because of the conditions that different groups of people had to cope with in the past.

What is Racial Stratification? Historically, the concept of race has changed across cultures and eras. It has eventually become less connected with ancestral and family ties, and more concerned with superficial physical characteristics. Racial stratification can be defined as systems of inequality in which some fixed groups memberships, such as race, religion, or national origin is a major criterion for ranking social positions and their differential rewards. Social construction of race is also reflected in the way names for racial categories change with changing times. In contrast, reviewing these factors really make you wonder why inequality exist?

When kids went to work the bosses wouldn’t let them work less hours because they can fit in tight space and they were quicker. The conditions while working were harsh, most kids died with bad air quality or not having food a water. Companies gave the adults good healthy working conditions. The reason to that was because most of the older men and women had bad health so they needed to help them more often.

Before one might explain how race and ethnicity are affected by stratification. You first have to understand race and ethnicity in its self. Many people including me before I took this class thought they were the same thing. Racial groups are a group that is socially set apart because of obvious physical differences. An example of this is I come from Somalia but in the United States my race would be defined as black or African American. Ethnicity or ethnic groups are groups set apart from others because of its national origin or distinctive cultural patterns. An example of this is although my race is defined as black or African American my ethnicity is Somali.

Social hierarchy and class distinction has been indispensable in the maintenance and prosperity of ancient human civilizations. Despite the demise of feudalistic regimes, group categorizations based on socioeconomic status and ethnic background are omnipresent. The existence of a schema according to Brubaker et al (2004) was to facilitate the perception and interpretation of the world (Brubaker, Loveman and

In chapter 5, the author mentioned about how factors of race and gender help to frame elections, which these two important factor are the particularly stratification systems in modern America. According to the article, the author uses the quote as a demonstration, “Nicholas Winter notes that “race and gender are two particularly important stratification systems in contemporary America. Both define appropriate relationships among individuals and between individuals and groups, and both play important roles in structuring society, culture, and politics both today and throughout American (and human) history.” This is the case in both our understanding of the position of African Americans within society and our understanding of the position of

America is known as the land of the free and home of the brave. When thinking of this you think about all the opportunities presented to people and all the freedom. An idea of America is that we’re a meritocracy, which means anyone can be able to to become anything they want as long as they work hard playing by the rules. Along with that many people believe that diversity will bring together the country and unite us all but that’s not the case. America is not a meritocracy.

Even without being consciously aware of it, the use of some sort of scale when interacting with others is quintessential. This is because it represents a basic need of defining the self through the means of the others; knowing one’s place in society, as well as the positions of fellow individuals, ensures an orderly functioning of said system. For the sake of this essay, the definition of social stratification as a society’s categorization of its people into rankings of socioeconomic tiers based on factors like wealth, income, race, education, and power (Pearce, 2015), will be used.

Social stratification can be simply defined by stating that it is a system in which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy (Macionis, page 224). The concept of social stratification is based on four central principles, which are social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, it carries over from one generation to the next, while it is universal, it is also variable, and social stratification involves not only inequality but beliefs as well (Macionis, pages 224-225). The first principle, that social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, basically says that children born into wealthy families are more likely to be of good health, do well in school, succeed in a career, and live a long life (Macionis, pages 224-225). An example of this first principle can be seen in the what happened to the Titanic. The first-class passengers survived not because they were better swimmers than the second- and third-class passengers, but because of their privileged position (Macionis, page 224-225). The second principle states that the concept of social stratification is one that carries over from one generation to the next (Macionis, page 225). This concept is essentially stating that the social standing of a person is partially determined by their parents. Most people’s social standing remains constant throughout their lives (Macionis, page 225). While social stratification is

This paper will be discussing “Some Principles of Stratification” by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore, “Classes in Capitalism and Pre- Capitalism” by Karl Marx, and “Who Rules America?” by G. William Domhoff. Davis and Moore examine stratification, social class, and positional rank and their effects on individuals and society. Marx examines inequality in society, the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed or the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and methods of production and their effects on society. Domhoff examines the roles of corporate communities and the upper class and how they impact America.

Social stratification defines any structure of inequality that persists in a society across generations. Social strata are groups of people — who belong to the same social class or have the same social level. Social strata are organised in a vertical hierarchy. In the early societies people shared a common social standing. In the hunting and gathering societies there was little stratification: men hunted for meat while women gathered edible plants. The general welfare of the society depended on the mutual sharing of goods between all members and no group emerged as better off than the others.