How Does Social Class Affect Social Work?

Individuals within a society are grouped into certain rankings that is based on their wealth, income, race and education known as the social stratification. Sociologist use this to determine the social standings of individuals within a society. Social stratification can also appear in much smaller groups. These groups such as the work place, schools, and businesses can “take the form of a distribution of power and authority down the ranks”. (Cole, 2017) The Caste system is also another form of stratification that one does not get a choice in. They are born into it and regardless of their talents will hold positions that are given to them their whole life. Social mobility is the ability for individuals to move about their social standings.

In today’s world computers, machines, and other forms of technology have seemingly started to take over the workforce as society looks to constantly improve and speed up the progress in the working world. The 1950’s fictional novel, Player Piano, portrays a society directly revolved around the use of machines and computers in the workplace to essentially become a more progressive and efficient society. The constant development of technology in today’s world correlates to Vonnegut’s Player Piano when discussing social class and unemployment, the devouring of industrial and day-to-day jobs carried out by human beings, and the dehumanization of society.

Social class disparity has existed in our world for decades. These classifications for division in society based on a variety of indicators such as wealth, race, heredity, and position, have an effect on how individuals are viewed and live in society. Despite multiple attempts to diminish the gap between the upper class and lower class in any society, there has always and will always be a separation between the various people groups. No political ideologies will ever be able to destroy social class disparity.

America is seen as the land of opportunity across the world, but many people wonder if it is true. The truth is America does have opportunities and with dedication anything is possible though the opportunities are limited. Usually limited for those who belong to a lower social class. The main reason opportunities are limited are because of America’s social inequality. The social class of America is separated into multiple groups that struggle with each other due to the inequality of power and wealth on the daily basis.

There are so many problems that Americans face. A lot of American citizens pay the consequences for the mistakes of the wealthy, and not every citizen is fortunate to battle through them.There is no doubt that America has a very wide range of social classes, but what makes America strong is how social classes cooperate and help each other. For the past 20 years the social classes of America have been at a political war. The wealthy privilege that are in power of America fail to recognize the disadvantages that low income citizens have, because they have never been in the certain types of situations that a low income citizen experiences every day. Our social system, benefits the privilege. It's designed for the privileged, and keeps them in

America is supposedly where all men are created equally, yet society has created a hierarchy based on socioeconomic standing and political power. Theorists Karl Marx and Max Weber has applied their theories of social class on the model of social stratification; a system in which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. According to Karl Marx, the main classes of society are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat; those that are the owners of the means of productions and those who work for it. On the other hand, Max Weber argued that there is a multidimensional ranking rather than a hierarchy of clearly defined classes. America has created a social system in which those of middle and lower classes tend to struggle to decrease the gap

It is said that the United States is made up of around six different social classes, however the three main classes are better known as the Upper, Middle, and Lower class. The three remaining classes are better known as subcategories for each of the main classes. These subcategories help break the classes up giving them their individual class.

Class has changed in the way Americans understand class. The upper class was seen as people who vacationed in Europe and worshiped God. The middle class drove Fords and enlisted as company men. The working class voted as Democratic and didn’t take cruises. Now, it’s harder for Americans to tell what social class people are in. It’s harder to guess peoples class based on clothing, votes, religion, the cars they drive, and the color of skin. Health and in some cases education is getting harder to tell class with financial help.

American society is a complicated web of networks that interconnect to produce a functioning system that people look to for guidance. History repeats itself all the time and society is always mirroring the past. Today, our societies’ boundaries are still debated about heatedly. Race, class, and gender help create these boundaries and as Foner wrote, “our imagined community will continue to be a source of political conflict and social struggle” (Foner).

In almost any city in the United States you can observe communities and individuals of different social classes and socioeconomic statuses. From the homeless man begging for change on the side of the road, to the CEO driving a brand new Mercedes, people of different social classes are found throughout society, usually living within proximity of each other. These are extreme, and observable examples of the different social classes in the United States, however it is not also easy to determine someone's social class by first glance. In the United States there are distinct differences among the classes of families ranging from marriage and parenting styles, to health and educational resources (Zinn & Eitzen). Income is a primary component that

American life is driven by the people’s income, education and occupation. These factors play a role in America’s class system. The social class in America can not be upheld by law but rather the social class is a concept. Social classes divide groups of people based on their wealth and status. America was formed as a “classless society” (Rocca) but beliefs change throughout history altering this and creating the class system.

The basis of the standard hierarchy is challenged by the rise of social media and therefore directly correlates with the influence of celebrities and people with a name brand. Most social scientists agree that society is stratified into a hierarchical arrangement of social classes. Social classes are groupings of individuals in a hierarchy, usually based on wealth, educational attainment, occupation, income, and membership in a subculture or social network. Social class in the United States is a controversial topic; there have been many competing definitions, models, and even disagreements over its very existence. Many Americans believe in a simple three-class model that includes the rich or upper class, the middle class, and the poor or working

Imagine a society where everyone has the same opportunities to succeed, where we do not question the value of another individual, where we do not allow injustice to reign upon our lives, where the validity of your rights is never questioned by those in power and the only thing people would worry about is the weather. This is deemed as the best possible scenario and is exactly what Karl Marx describes when he wrote about his ideologies. “...The world will be for the common people, and the sounds of happiness will reach the deepest springs. Ah! Come! People of every land, how can you not be roused?”, he wrote in the Communist Manifesto.

There is no way to deny that a social class system exists that divides people by general popularity. Once children begin school, they begin to separate into these divisions. The top of the social ladder, often considered to be people who are cool, are stereotyped to be beautiful and happy. Although in some cases this may be true, it is not always that way. Misconceptions about popularity lead to a greater divide amongst the social classes, and cause those in the lower social levels to be considered as or to feel as if they are inferior. Articles like one written by Christian McBride, entitled Be Cool, published in This I Believe II, continue to develop the false ideology that one must be popular in order to live a full, happy life.

All human societies have been class based in some way, shape or form and, interpreting this in the most basic way, it can be said that in every known human society there has been a fundamental division between two broad social groups, the buorgeoisie that own and control the means of production, and the proletariat who own nothing but their ability to sell their labour power (that is, their ability to work) in return for wages. The anger and dissent over the differences in social classes has never wavered