From the time period of 1870 to 1900 the growth of big businesses in the United States had a major impact on the economy, politics, and the response of Americans of Americans to these changes. These businesses grew significantly in number, size, and influence and had an ever-lasting effect on Americans and their surrounding community. Industry and its new technologies have had an amazing impact on reducing the costs of the goods necessary to life, such as food prices, fuel and lighting prices, and the cost of living (Document A). The standard of living of most Americans should have increased, as more wages would be left over to spend on luxuries. Aware of the extra-money available to working families, the different pieces of a Big Business have acted in such a way to suck that extra-money from the poor families.
Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” (Marx and Engels 1848). Social class, therefore, is based upon economic criteria and conflict occurs between those who own the means of production (bourgeoisie) and the wage-labourers (proletariat). As well as having economic control over the proletariat, the bourgeoisie also have the power to determine the superstructure; the ruling class can distort perceptions of the world and hide the true nature of social relationships and the exploitation of the proletariat and, above all, promote bourgeoisie interests. Marx defines production as workers selling their labour for wages in order to exchange money for commodities that will meet their most basic needs. As Marx
Karl Marx was a late 19th Century thinker. He saw class as being the central category for analysing social relation and social struggles. This is because he believed that class struggles drive the social changes in our societies ‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles’. (Marx, Engels, 1848, pg.8) He viewed class objectively, defining it by the ownership of property. The class struggle’s which Marx refers to above is that of the Bourgeoisie, who own the means of production and the proletariat, who sell their labour.
Using material from Item A and elsewhere assess different Marxist views of the relationship between crime and social class. Traditional Marxism sees capitalist society as divided into two classes: the ruling capitalist class (or bourgeoisie) who own the means of production, and the working class (or proletariat), who’s alienated labour the bourgeoisie exploit to produce profit. Marxism is a structural theory. It sees society as a structure in which the economic base (the capitalist economy) determines the shape of the superstructure, which is made up of all the other social institutions, including the state, the law and the criminal justice system. Their function is to serve ruling-class interests and maintain the capitalist economy.
Assess the usefulness of Marxist approaches to an understanding of crime and deviance in contemporary society Marxist criminologists argue that the state passes laws which support ruling-class interests, and maintain its control and power over the subject class. They put forward the view that laws do not reflect value consensus, but instead reflect the values of ruling class ideology. Therefore, laws work towards false class consciousness, as laws only benefit the ruling minority. Many Marxists also argue that there are a vast number of laws protecting property, and Snider (1993) argued the state is often reluctant to pass laws which might threaten profitability. She also argued capitalist states often pour large amounts of money into attracting business; for example offering new investors tax concessions and grants.
Poverty in America Name: Institution: Course: Tutor: Date: Table of Contents Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Poverty 4 Literature Review 6 Race, Class, Gender and Poverty 6 Causes of Poverty 9 Blaming Poor for Poverty 11 Overcoming poverty in the United States 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Abstract The contemporary society has not existed without social problems whose impact has had far-reaching consequences. There are myriad social problems that the society has conventionally faced many of which fall in a continuum in a cause-effect mechanism. Poverty is a serious problem that the society has to contend with. It has formed the subject of social work discourse and a theme in sociological inquiry.
Krieken, R. et al. 2014, p. 205 defines class as referring to a “social group, defined in terms of its economic position in a hierarchy of inequality and with material interests that differentiate it from other classes.” This essay will set out to explain how sociology helps to understand class, and how the theories of Marx and Weber have influenced the basis for most modern sociological theories of class. Social class is a concept that has been argued about for hundreds of years. According to the Business Dictionary social class can be defined as “a status hierarchy in which individuals and groups are classified on the basis of esteem and prestige acquired mainly through economic success and accumulation of wealth. Social class may also refer to any particular level in such a hierarchy.” Sociologists have given a threefold classification of classes which consists of upper class, middle class and working class.
Outline and evaluate marxist explanations of crime (45) The Marxist theory in general splits society in half, the rich and the poor. With the poor being exploited by the rich. This theory appears to be the basis for all Marxist perspective including the Marxist explanations of crime and deviance. Karl Marx stated that crime was the product of poverty and the traditional Marxist view regarding the cause of crime amongst the working classes is competition and the desire to become wealthy and live a middle class life. The working class want the ‘things’ that they see the middle classes with but they can't afford them so they resort to crimes such as stealing as a means of getting what they want.
What efforts were made to improve the lot As defined by the famous 1800's revolutionary socialist, Karl Marx, the working class are individuals who sell their labor power for wages and who do not own the means of production. He argued that they were responsible for creating the wealth of a society. He asserted that the working class physically build bridges, craft furniture, grow food, and nurse children, but do not own land, or factories. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx argued that it was the destiny of the working class to displace the capitalist system, abolishing the social relationships underpinning the class system and then developing into a future communist society in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." The history of the working class has been set by the vast surplus of production available from industrialization creating better living standards.
A new breed of middle and upper class where fighting their way into the limelight, and seeking to be social accepted. “Marxist Terry Eagleton posits a complex and contradictory relationship between the landed gentry and aristocracy, the traditional power-holders, and the capitalist, industrial middle classes, who were pushing for social acceptance and political power. Simultaneously with the struggle among these groups, an accommodation was developing based on economic interests”. Both writers came from middle class families although Charles Dickens did suffer hardship for a short period of time. Dickens and Bronte both have expressed their views on class segregation and the effect that it has on people.