Social Inequality Sociology

Poverty is not simply a deficiency in material resources, it is the complex situation of low income that limits ones access to many of the social determinants of health such as safe and suitable housing, food, child care, education, and can lead to social exclusion (Séguin et al, 2012). The experience of poverty in childhood, particularly early childhood, has been linked to many adverse health effects such as low birth weight, increased incidence of asthma, injuries, mental health issues and obesity (Sharma & Ford-Jones, 2015). The impact of childhood poverty continues into adulthood, increasing the risk of many chronic diseases. Perhaps even

Poverty is the single largest determinant of health. It has a widespread range of negative effects, both on the physical and the mental level, making it a significant public health concern in many countries. Poorer people tend to live shorter lives because there’s a clear correlation between income and access to healthcare. This disparity draws special attention to the significant sensitivity of health and the social environment.

Poverty also influences our responses to health and illness. The level of income below that which people cannot afford a minimum, nutritionally adequate diet, suitable and secure housing, heating and hot water, and beds to sleep on.

215 chapter 8 Sociology In Our Times: The Essentials) this is to suggest that the different classes in society are in conflict because the more powerful groups maintain and control the distribution of resources, rewards, privileges and opportunities by exploiting the less powerful. They also believe that inequality is a result of profits being generated from the cost of labour being less than the cost of the goods and services being produced from that labour, also known as the surplus value. Conflict theorists do not believe that stratification is functional for society, or that it serves as a source of stability. Rather, they believe that stratification will lead to instability and social change.

Social inequality exists in the United States through the Elite’s power to maintain their dominance in the United States capitalist system. The Elite Ruling class is made of the upper class and this class of individuals share similar ideology and are the members of the United State’s Superstructure. The Elite Ruling Class members of society are the decision and policy makers in the United States. Research and history has proven that many policies and decisions made by the Elite Ruling Class serve their own interest and promote their ideas. These decisions are the source of the inequality in the United States and it contributes to their ability to maintain their dominant status. The inequality is trickled down to the other classes through social policy and social institutions that affect our lives everyday citizens. A major example of this social inequality can be seen in the United States housing market or home ownership. A significant amount of studies, statics and data supports the evidence of social inequality within the US housing market or home ownership. The following passages will discuss social inequality in the United States as it is connected to Karl Marx’s theory of capitalism’s power and influence of the Elite Dominant i.e. the Ruling Class view as it relates to homeownership within the United States. Karl Marx’s theory however focuses mostly on economic s and the difference between upper and lower class not race. It is also important to point out that the Elite

Studies show that people living in poverty face adverse living conditions which are associated with various ranges of health problems (Raphael, 2007). This means that people who live in poverty are more likely to suffer from chronic illness such as: coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and various form of cancers. As a result of poverty, individuals are more likely to have a lower life expectancy and higher mortality rate because of those facing numerous chronic illnesses. People living in poverty or in a low income bracket are more likely to be less healthy and have more medical conditions compared to their counterparts. As a result, they are more likely to be in the hospital more frequently with more complicated healthcare needs (Williamson, Stewart, Hayward, Letourneau, Makwarimba, Masuda, Rainee & Reutter, and Rootman & Wilson, 2006).

Of all social determinants of health, we can agree that the most insidious and universal might be poverty because this economic factor influence health in several ways, and it can be both physically and mentally damaging. Poverty affects every aspect of our lives; it determines the distribution of resources; the food we can afford, the access and ability to health care, the level

The barriers that stand in the way of maintaining a good health vary from one country to another. Moreover, within the same country these barriers vary depending on the socio-economic status of the individual. For individuals living in Canada, the main barrier to maintaining a good health is poverty. Even though poverty does not cause a disease directly, people living in poverty are lacking the resources to mitigate it. Poverty is a significant issue because it affects the health indirectly through the individual’s access to healthcare, housing and nutrition.

This essay will discuss ways in which a person’s socioeconomic class and his/her social situation can have an impact on his/her health, using examples. We believe that there is a direct link between socioeconomic/social class and health (Adler et al. 1994). I will be defining the key terms: socioeconomic and health, social class then proceed to discuss about how poverty, income, employability, environment and housing can impact on a person’s social situation and their health.

Social Stratification is a term used by sociologists to describe inequalities that exist between society and us as individuals and can also be described as a hierarchy with the less privileged people at the bottom and the more favoured people at the top. (Giddens, 2006)

Our society has many ethical implications of socioeconomic inequalities. It is a social fact honestly, when people think about social inequality, they generally put social inequality in the terms of socioeconomic class. The United States has the largest gap in wealth. This gap causes people to start arguing about lower,middle, and upper class. Depression played a major role in the gap as well. People who have wealth and money have the top social standings in the society and enjoy the greatest privileges as brought on by their money and their social status. On the other hand, people who end up poor or have very little or no access to these high privileges and are usually marginalized in the terms of education and social services.

Universal basic income, (UBI), has become one our leading topics for a solution towards socioeconomic inequality. Billionaires such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, have advanced the idea of going through with UBI (Kaza, 2018). UBI tackles many diversity challenges our society seriously needs solutions too. However, due to the enormity of UBI, it’s important to evaluate our decision to go forward; not only finically but ethically. For governments to implement a UBI, it would take a major overhaul of their welfare and tax systems. For example, the United States would need to spend over 3 trillion dollars a year just to provide a yearly distribution of $12,000 for each person over 18. This does not include illegal immigrants or the cost of running the program. I will evaluate the potential effects and ethics of UBI on minority groups in three areas: gender inequality, social conflict and the effects of automation on the work force.

The conflict theory approach emphasizes issues of inequality and change in relation to social class, money, race ethnicity and gender. The conflict theory pinpoints the belief that these social classifications are parasitic: only benefiting one group while negatively affecting another. In particular, the social conflict approach focuses on the struggles that lower-class people face in a world where the rich and powerful benefits at their expense. Persons of the lower-class are often disadvantaged, since they are not given a chance to move ahead and are always stuck at the bottom of the social ladder. Upper-class individuals are able to fully educate their children, and hence, their generation will always be rich and powerful. However, a weakness

For example a person living in a deprived council estate, with a very low income has been proven to be more at risk of developing health issues compared to someone from a higher social class as there is a strong correlation between poverty and ill health. This has been backed up by (WHO, 1946) that state that ‘poverty creates ill-health because it forces people to live in environments that make them sick.’

Within this structure, Weber describes there being three dimensions of inequality: class (which correlates with the economy), status (which correlates with the social aspects of society), and party (which correlates with the political aspects of society). I believe most of the modern explanations of inequality, at most, help build upon Weber's general theories, and at least, reflect the same elitist pessimism that Weber also holds. The dual-labor market thesis contends that there are two labor markets (in terms of income), in which the higher income market is of primary importance and the lower income market is of secondary importance. This tries to justify those people within high power positions by (somehow) trying to prove that our system is objectively rewarding higher incomes to professions that have higher social importance than lower income professions. Similarly, the functionalist theory of stratification "views societies as social systems that have certain basic problems to solve or functions that have to be performed if the society is to survive" (243). So the reason for inequality, for functionalists, is because our system must reward (with significantly higher incomes) those individuals who are motivated enough to yield the stresses of such functionally important positions. The fact that our system reproduces classes into the same class assumes the