Economic Inequality In Everyday Life

Consequently, the presents of an oligarchy has contributed to the diminishment of the middle class, further dividing the rich from the poor. David Myers would say that this divide creates an “us” versus “ them” environment (105). Myers is a social psychologist who studied the diverging effects of groups. He learned that we associate ourselves with groups to feel better about ourselves (105). The downfall of in-groups is that we tend to exclude and look down at outsiders. Conforming within a group can be debilitating to social interactions, and tend to cause prejudices towards other people (Myers 106). For the purposes of this paper, classism is the preconception at hand. Classism is the intolerance of another social class; this bigotry is commonly practiced against the poor. Most of the affluent members of the elite social class claim that those in poverty are lazy and don’t aspire to be successful; and because of these schemas, the elite find no use for programs that essentially help the lower class survive. Bellah demonstrated

In return, this creates different perceptions for different people depending on what one has or does not have. Therefore, social classes are divided into sectors of society and economic inequality is preserved. Because people compare one another through what they have or do not have, people divide and create social classes. Those that do have, meaning those that have money and are wealthy, want to maintain and keep it that way, therefore they separate themselves from those that do not have the same luxuries and, so the poor are left out in the cold to fight for their own lifes. Many of the lower class begin to lower their societal status in comparison to others, because many disengage themselves from politics, as they feel that the government and the society they live in ignores their daily economic struggles. The political system as well ignores conditions of poverty and instead focuses on only one kind of injustice, racial discrimination. Many people, thus focus on race instead of trying to focus on feeding and helping those in need. This leads to the difficulty of striving for upward class mobility, because social class is viewed and understood by personal perceptions. Thus one’s own judgements assess the decision for promotions, hiring, and the feeling of ‘fitting in’. Because many of those that are perceived as ‘poor’, ‘lower class’ or ‘uneducated’ are not treated the way

In the book, “Rigging The Game: How Inequality Is Reproduced in Everyday Life” by Michael Schwalbe, He splits ideas into a few ideas. The first of these being how equality is created. It is split into three capitals. The second idea being how inequality remains consistent. The last idea is how inequality can be overcome. I have structured this in a way I feel makes it easiest to understand. The following paragraphs will go into detail about how inequality is created, consistent, and can be overcome.

For the past 30 years the “gap” in income received by the rich and the lower class has continuously continued to increase, showing no signs of decrease anytime soon. This gap has mostly affected the middle class, which is made up of mostly African Americans and Hispanics, making America less determined to correct such an issue. Given the circumstances African American’s are the focus of this issue due to the fact they make up majority of the middle class. It is known that modern racism exist within today’s society in various ways, one of which happen to be within the economy. For decades the economy has had its downfalls, however, it’s been facing an issue that it has been hiding from the rest of the nation. The gap that everyone speaks has

Social class can result in discrimination and can lead to hatred and violence in American society. Lower socio-economic classes have begun a public outcry in the nation after seeing movements like Occupy Wall Street. Individuals in lower and higher socio-economic classes are regarded as providing negative effects in a social class battle. Upper classes who are born into wealth and power use their privilege as an important part of their identity. This identity affects differences such as their behavior and attitude in American society. Upper classes look down on the poor's behavior and attitude, and they feel that the poor are working relentlessly to take away their power. The poor feel like the rich do nothing but enjoy their money and use

Life is hard it consists of effort, work, and dedication, all of which make life a bit more livable, but nonetheless the struggle still exists. This struggle is due to the constant tension between acquiring wealth, which apparently makes life worthwhile, while disdaining one’s personal passions, which has become a social norm. This is interesting, because it shows how easily controlled the human mind can be. In reality this is the heart of the argument: do people wish to be controlled by their jobs and those in power, or do they want to be in control of their lives by doing what they please? Therefore, America being as modern and progressive as it may seem harbors and endorses a new kind of slavery that leaves people devoid of their ambitions

The upper classes make a lot of assumptions about the lower classes, but they are not based in observation or even logical theory. Within a simple half hour visit to a poor neighborhood, I was able to debunk most of the myths held about poorness and poverty, which shows that there is no real basis for these stereotypes. This itself explains a lot about inequality as a whole. Groups of power are uninterested in really getting to know what it’s like to be disadvantaged or marginalized, instead just using stigma to keep themselves in a place of privilege. They also try to cover up this scheme, denying the tactic and blaming poverty on an individual’s bad decisions. By dismissing any form of structure working toward inequality, it is simple to maintain the power hierarchy that the upper classes benefit from.

The good and the bad of the wealthy and poor may find it difficult to acknowledge that they have a lot of similarities, however life being part of the upper or lower class have both an awesome arrangement in like way. Whether it be preparing, standard of living or even physical or mental abuse, both classes need to battle with mostly similar issues. The lower-class people won 't have an issue, for instance, what clothes they are going to wear for the day, or what they plan to do in order to survive life and provide basic necessities to their families with not much money in their reach, yet in any case they share similar type of issues as people.

Social injustices are a part of the latent effect of American culture. This effect is illustrated through social classes determined by wealth. The monarch system provided a culture that carried through time and transcended in the American culture. The affluent class in America segregates their social interactions and environments with barriers physically or ideologically. For example, country clubs or private associations that only the rich can pay the high monthly dues. These different types of key associations play major roles in networking and conducting of business deals in America. Another social aspect of the disparity of social classes affecting the poor is the ideology that people of the lower class is unintelligent, incapable, indolent of work, and the lack of ambition to improve economic status. One “stereotype” (Macionis, p.)

My family showed me that although we aren’t at the lowest of standards. Being in the working class still makes us a minority from the social inequality standard.

Brantley et al (2003) do provide strategies that both the dominant group and the subordinate group can follow in order to overcome this battle our nation fights with classism. They suggest both groups claim their identity and learn as much about themselves and their heritage as well as train their children to be anti-classist. They also urge the subordinate group to examine their feelings about money, saving, and education. Instead of being driven by fear, this examination of feelings may spark curiosity in a person and may lead them to acquire more knowledge in these areas. They challenge the people in the dominant group to gain exposure to the culture and language of the lower class and learn about their history and experiences. Judging a person because of their social or economic class never truly allows one to understand the pitfalls the working class may face. This exposure will provide more opportunities for the wealthy to understand how to engage and work with people who are considered lower class.

In many societies, wealthy people are seen as hardworking, deserving, and above everybody else. However, poor people are portrayed as undeserving, uneducated, and useless. In modern-day America, these characterizations have switched. Gene Simmons once said, “Live and think like a poor man and you’ll always be okay”. In some cases, poor people are the ones that work long, boring day, where rich people are drinking imported wine on a yacht. When reading, Snow White, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the authors write from a marxist point-of-view. They also use characterization of the evil queen and the dwarfs to describe the socio-economic classes of modern-day society.

Society is created to be functional, but for whom? In America, there is a lower class, a middle class, and an upper class. A majority of the lower class are minorities, while the upper class are mainly white. This is no mistake, society was made to function for rich, white, owning men. Poverty is one of the greatest assets the upper class has to keep them at their high status. Poverty allows the upper class to stay on top, while the lower class suffers from a multitude of problems such as poor education systems, high incarceration rates, and financial troubles that keep them from moving up the socioeconomic ladder.

Perhaps one of the greatest issues that our world is plagued with is inequality. It is not a new issue but certainly an important one, and an issue that is present in virtually every era of human history. The concept of inequality is not innately human as countless other species of animals operate under hierarchies of dominance with certain members exploiting others and enjoying a wealthier lifestyle. However, humans are not born with the desire to create inequality and to exploit one another, as is clear in early human societies that existed tens of thousands of years ago. These early societies, better describes as tribes or simply groups, are considered to have been egalitarian. These strong egalitarian groups had powerful sharing of norms, assertive social mechanisms to enforce norms, and ritual practices designed to alleviate social tensions . In opposition, a weak egalitarian society can be defined by the absence of an effective political hierarchy, along with visible differences in rank, wealth, status, and power between individuals . Weak egalitarianism is well represented in many current countries such as the United States of America, thought of by the most as the richest and most powerful country, but that mighty status does not represent much of their population.

Inequality had been appeared since a long time ago and still exists in today’s liberal society. The possibility of equality in possession of one will lead to inequality as long as human beings still possess more than one attribute or good. For example, disabled people who are unfortunately born disadvantageous compare to normal people, disabled people’s needs are greater even though they both receive the equality of healthcare. This essay will illustrate the reason of the existence of inequality in modern society and therefore prove that this concept is natural and inevitable by discussing two major points which are gender and class inequality with references of three main famous authors: Mill, Marx and Weber.