Earlier stated americans believe in the United States that the middle class contains the majority of the population, but Zweig states differently. “ The great majority of Americans form the working class” (Zweig 3). The working class are those people with relatively little power are work. Everyday millions of men and women, no matter their race or religion, preform jobs like; driving trucks, designing hair and stocking shelves. These are all working class jobs, but how can one define these jobs as working class?
2. For each social group, list the way it used power or suffered powerlessness. The upper and ruling class used power to make them superior to theses who they thought were beneath them, who were the middle class but note specifically the poor. They made they poor and middle class pay taxes to them which in turn made the upper class wealthy. The poor suffered powerlessness because they were poor, therefore they were placed at the bottom of the social ladder.
Comparisons between the classes usually turn out to be “deficit” accounts of lower-status families. Culture of poverty, underclass Cultural explanations obscure or ignore the social and material realities of class. Rodman: “lower class family traits” are actually solutions to problems faced by lower class people Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID): families experience short-term spells of poverty as result of dramatic changes (divorce, sudden unemployment, serious illness) Structural Explanations of Class Examine the ways in which social class shapes the networks of relationships between families, individuals, and institutions. Focus on relationships of power between class groups The key to social
1.2- Indirect Discrimination: Indirect discrimination occurs when policies and practices, which appear neutral or fair because they are applied to everyone, actually disadvantage people and particular groups within society. Unfair or unequal treatment of an individual or group on the grounds of age, disability ,gender, race, religion, beliefs or sexual orientation, being treated less favourable than someone else in the same situation, being treated unfairly. Positive Discrimination: Positive discrimination is regarded as the preferential treatment of members of a minority group over a majority group, either by sex, race, age, marital status or sex orientation. Racial Discrimination: If a practitioner
Shorris bluntly tells the poor they have been cheated. He tells them that the rich have learned the humanities and have the knowledge to use them in day-to-day life but the poor, do not. Shorris simply summarizes, “rich people know a more effective method for living in this society,” (Shorris 4). Rich people know how to successfully and politically fit into the gears of civilization. Since Shorris realizes that the rich have this unfair advantage over the poor, he decides to create a course designed for those that could not learn these humanities in private schools and expensive universities like the rich could.
The Dispossessed By William Deresiewicz William Deresiewicz identifies the American classes as “upper”, “middle” and “working” class. I believe he uses working class instead of lower class because the term working class is used very often in the media, it’s more common. Also lower class to me is a more derogatory term and working class is more “politically” correct. I also think he is using the term working instead of lower so he doesn’t offend anybody. When I hear someone say “lower class” I think of someone very poor and struggling with life, bills, and living situation.
Prestige symbols are attributes or characteristics which cause an individual to be held or treated in a higher regard simply because of those symbols. Stigma symbols, however, work the opposite way. Stigma symbols are attributes and characteristics which cause an individual to be held and treated as less than human. Visibility is how well or poorly a person communicates to others that they have a particular stigma. However, visibility is also dependent upon the capability of those around an individual to identify that individual’s stigma.
Wilkinson’s message described by Toynbee is that “social environment can be more toxic than any pollutant” (331). Also, there are comparisons throughout the readings of countries with different social gaps. Countries with a more equal distribution of money tend to have a higher life expectancy. Vice versa; richer countries with an unequal distribution of money have a low life expectancy. Toynbee then describes that crime rates showcase inequality in a country and not its overall wealth.
Minimum wage is the lowest hourly payment an employer must pay for his or her workers. To employees, minimum wage laws acts as a protection which employees can insure their own rights and have a reasonable standard of living. Having or raising the minimum wage can also effect other aspects positively, such as, benefiting low-income families, improving the efficient of a total production, reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, and so forth. A partial of people are opposing the concept of having a minimum wage claiming reasons like: it may reduce job opportunities and it can create a more competitive market for the employers. However, in my point of view, I believe setting a minimum wage is more beneficial than it is harmful.
By placing emphasizing a lower-status groups weakness, according to their weaknesses and flaws, they justify those that are in a higher status maintaining the status quo and in doing so allowing the higher status individual to feel secure in their position. Stereotype groups’ people together using what the person knows, or thinks they know from past experiences or outside influences, and utilizes that information to