The Gap Between Economic And Social Classes

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.

Social class is a “tag” to define your status in a community. One of the main requirements you must have to be in the Upper class, is to have wealth and power. That is basically it, and obviously the absence of those characteristics could mean you are in a Middle or even in the Lower class. Sports are an activity that people do for pleasure that requires physical activity and sometimes has rules for the players to follow in order to play the game. It is most commonly played outdoors. It can improve your cardio, health, and physical condition. For example, it can prevent things like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer or even mental illnesses like depression.

Health care in America is a serious issue as it involves families that are unable to receive accessible, affordable and quality medical treatment. Middle class or impoverished families are unable to receive the benefits of health care due to low income levels and a volatile economy. Politicians discuss the reformation of the health care system, but people who are uninsured suffer the consequences of a system that overlooks middle class families in favor of wealthy families, a dominant issue for conflict theorists. Some argue that the health care system is not in need of reform and state that

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.

For decades, a person’s socioeconomic status or SES has affected the healthcare that people receive due to race and “wealth”. This problem has plagued American society because of these factors leading to many receiving inadequate healthcare. All of these factors for someone’s SES has changed a lot in the healthcare domain that is unfair to many who are not the “ideal”. Due to this the perception, experiences with healthcare waver and are different between the stages of these SES’s. No matter the status of a person they should receive the same amount of care, treatment, and closer.

A key factor affecting access to care is economic inequality. Many racial/ethnic groups are considered to be of low socioeconomic status in the United States. When one has to worry about food and housing, health is not considered a priority. Lack of health insurance is a huge problem that many people face. The inequalities in income means less money can be put towards doctor’s visits and medications. Research done by Shi, LeBrun, Zhu, and Tsai (2011) shows

Comparatively, health care coverage costs more for the middle class and provides less coverage than that of upper class or poverty-level patients. “When insurance is offered, it is becoming increasingly unaffordable for

USA is a very big country with a lot of people and the social classes are very important. We can see that social class plays big part of people’s life. Everyday people are working, studying, trying to be better. Even though right now it’s time when everyone has many opportunities in his life, anyway there is a gap between classes and groups of people with same features. And your background probably will build your future. And we need to find what kind of class we have right now and look into these classes. The main idea is that Social Classes still exist and it’s most general part of U.S.A society. There are three reasons why gap between groups still exist.

Economic stratification is the different rankings in social class are separated in different economic ways. These differences can vary from clothing, cars, perfumes, cigarette brands, etc. There are many ways you can tell what a person stratification is just by the way they look or the things they have. Usually these ranking go from lower class to middle class then the upper class. Each of these classes have very different ways of living and what they do to maintain a certain status.

This means we make both conscious and unconscious decisions and judgments on our actions in society, weighing the cost and fairness of the exchange being made. Looking through this lens, it would not be hard to argue that people make active and passive decisions to remain in the lifestyle that they are currently living in. On the subject of healthcare, one could argue that socialized healthcare policy would be removing choice from the individual to “rise above” his or her current economic situation, because with equal benefits being awarded to every American citizen, there would be no need to work hard and contribute to society. It could be argued by this perspective that it is the citizen’s responsibility to gain economic strength and provide for oneself private insurance as to get the best quality healthcare possible. Maintaining this status quo is important to keeping power within the Ingroup and keeping the Outgroup in its proper place, as well as keeping a readily willing and cheap workforce available to society. By using this perspective, one could observe that capitalism is being used to oppress the working class. In simple terms, we get what we give, but society could not function if each person had the same opportunities as the next person. This perspective could explain why the quality of healthcare differs

The population of the poor in the United States represents roughly 15 percent of the total population (Macionis 2013:41). As of 2012, the poorest 20 percent of the United States only represents 3.8 percent of total income earned (Macionis 2013:35). People do not choose to be poor, and most of those who are impoverished try to overcome this challenge. However, there is a trend that is evident and is continuously noticed in society. Those who live in poverty experience worse health care, education, social status, and wages than the upper class. I believe socioeconomic status serves a large role in whether an individual is likely to experience poor health. Policies that increase unemployment insurance or allocate for equal distribution of wealth and opportunity are viable solutions to socioeconomic inequality (Babones 2010:141). The social conflict theory best explains the socioeconomic inequality in the United States and helps sociologists interpret how inequality causes increased health issues for the lower class.

Many American’s can accept the fact that there are economic classes that separate us based on our income. However, our health care system seems to mimic this behavior. It astonishes me that the United States spends the most in health care compared to the other nations in the world, yet we have fallen so short on the ladder of quality care. “The United States is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, yet the health of average American’s lags behind that of citizens in other developed countries.” (P.390) Considering the large amounts invested in health care, one would assume that we would be on top with providing all American’s with the best health care for their busy lives; but this certainly isn’t the case. “The reason is a widening gap between the health of rich and poor American’s” (P.390)

The United States is world renowned for having the best health care if not the most accessible. Citizens have at their disposal a plethora of hospitals, physicians, and therapists to improve their well-being. Statistical data was taken back in 2010 under the Central Texas Region and studied health care coverage and income in regards to the community. The data displayed in the surveys heavily suggest that income/ health in general have a high correlation. The issue that arose with the given data imply that those who are on the lower end of the income spectrum subsequently have no health care coverage and poorer health than those with higher income. In any case with high correlation there are a number of factors influencing the statistical evidence, and in this case sociological barriers are present in regards of inequality and health care.

According to Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein in The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, Social class, a system of stratification practiced primarily in capitalist societies, ranks groups of people according to their worth. It is difficult to draw exact lines between the social classes in the united states. The most identified classes are upper class, middle and lower middle class. The upper class is just 1 percent and the middle class is 30 percent of the U.S population. Wealthy people erudite early in their lives that whatever money came into their households, at least of 10 percent was paid for themselves for saving purposes. They may have gone into the stock market; they may have invested in mutual and bond funds. On the other hand, Middle class people use their income to pay their bills first. All

The problem of poverty has always plagued the world, including developed countries, such as America. It is one of the main reasons that less developed countries have difficulty developing at the pace of other countries. Many different actions can cause poverty. Most people have different opinions on why poverty still exists. “Nearly equal portions of the public in advanced, emerging, and developing countries, cite the gap between the rich and the poor as a very big problem. And notably, it is the leading economic concern in the eyes of people in major economies such as China and Germany, at 42 and 39 percent, respectively, according to the new Pew Research survey. A global median of 29 percent say their government’s actions are to blame for inequality, making it the leading cause cited. People in advanced economies, in particular, believe that their governments are responsible for the rich getting richer and equally culpable for the poor becoming relatively poorer. A median of 32 percent in those nations blame government, three times the percentage that cite the failings of their educational system and double the share who blame their tax system” (Stokes). Some people that are wealthy are also greedy. Although they control a large amount of wealth, they are unwilling to share it. Although it should not be the responsibility of wealthy people to support people in poverty, it would be helpful to the advancement of society. Another contributing reason that poverty exists is