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Social Stratification And Social Stratification In America

Decent Essays

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. First off, it’s needed to look at how people move up in society, so looking at social mobility and social stratification can help to explain the basics of this movement. Social stratification is the way individuals are categorized in rankings by their wealth, income, and social status. Social mobility is the movement of individuals throughout these rankings. As stated, intelligence is not a factor of these ranks. For example, actors get paid by the sales of their movies, meaning that if they are a big time actor they can get paid millions of dollars and are very well known. These actors do not show such intelligence that should qualify such a rank in society yet they still accomplish it. But when it is looked upon doctors it is clear that they do not make a mere fraction of that pay, they make only about $200,000. Doctors go to school for years on end to aquire this mass of intelligence yet they are not viewed as highly as actor in some people eyes. This is an example of how America doesn’t focus on

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