FREE ESSAY ON SOCIAL INEQUALITY

SOCIAL INEQUALITY

As we prosper through time, inequality is slowly less evident. A lot of people don't
realize that although things are improving with time, inequality is still prominent in
our society. The people that are failing to realize that there still is inequality, are
the fortunate ones. They rise well above the poverty line, and usually live relatively
economically sound lives. They are the people who are supplied with our society's
benefits.
The people that are in pursuit of social change, and constantly bring attention to issues
of equal rights and privileges, are often the people that do not have them. They are the
ones who suffer daily from different levels of inequality.
The majority of post-secondary students are considered to be privileged people. This
tends to cause an ignorance, or lack of education, towards inequality because most of the
students do not experience great levels of inequality. When our class was given our first
quiz, everybody was able to feel a sense of inequality. As the class was divided into the
different time groups, every student felt the unequal opportunity. Even the students that
were allotted the most time for the quiz were able to at least see the inequality. As
different times were announced the less fortunate students began to complain, and the
more fortunate ones realized that their once equal peers, were now placed in an unequal
situation. Since most of the students do not experience great amounts of inequality, the
unequal time distribution shocked them.
Fortunately for myself, I have grown up in an upper-middle class family. Although my
parents have always tried to educate me on inequality, I never experienced much of it.
During the class exercise I was placed in group three, and was given six minutes to
complete my quiz. Although this was almost enough time for me to complete my quiz, I was
definitely jealous of the students that were allotted more time. Even though the groups
were arranged randomly, I still felt like I was treated unequally to my peers. I felt
unequal to both my peers that had more, and less time, than me. The situation made me
angry, and I wanted an explanation from the instructor for the unequal situation that was
forced upon me. I felt the injustice because I had a different time to write my quiz than
a neighboring peer; who pays the same tuition, and attends the same class as I do. I
wanted to know why some of my peers were given more time than I was, thus enabling them
to possibly score higher on the quiz. This quiz was the first mark of the course, and was
I worried that my first grade was going to be a poor one.
When the instructor explained the purpose of the exercise I realized what an excellent
point he had proven. He forced us in an unequal situation that was out of our control. It
was nothing we could have predicted or done anything about.
This unique exercise put me on a new level of stratification that I was not used to. It
made me feel how other people, not only in my society, but worldwide, feel about
inequality everyday. The difference was that I was soon given an explanation, and
returned to my regular level of stratification. Many people in our society are given no
explanation to their forced inequality. Although the classroom exercise does not compare
to the real world, it still stirred feelings of rage, helplessness and discouragement.
Looking through the window of the unequal situation changed my views on lower groups of
society. It made me realize how difficult social mobility can be. I can understand the
Davis-Moore thesis, which states that stratification has beneficial consequences. It is
easy for people on the higher end of the stratification hierarchy to agree with this
because they believe that the harder one works, the more they will achieve, thus
promoting production in society. Individuals at lower ends of the stratification system
disagree with that. Their social status prevents them from achieving their best because
all of the benefits and advantages are given to those of a higher status. The lower class
is constantly denied society's privileges, such as education. This tends to discourage
them, often leaving them feeling helpless. Unfortunately this helplessness tends to be
viewed by many higher class people as laziness. What is not realized is that social
stratification is a character of society, and not just a reflection on individual
differences. Stratification is universal but variable. It involves beliefs and persists
over generations (Macionis 220). The lower class often questions the point of its effort
into an unforgiving society when the outcome is inevitable. This all ties in with the
numerous reasons that cause poverty and homelessness. This ultimately creates a
never-ending class system of inequality that so many are trying to dismantle. Class
systems are based on individual achievement, which strongly ties in the Davis-Moore
Thesis. Unfortunately social mobility is not evenly achieved amongst the levels of
stratification. The higher the level of stratification the easier social mobility tends
to be. In the example of the class exercise, the level or stratification can be compared
to the time given in each group. The more time the person had, the better chance they had
at scoring higher on the quiz. The people who had more time on the quiz can be compared
to individuals at higher levels of stratification.
Lower classes of stratification are not given the same opportunities as higher classes.
Lower classes have ascribed statuses that are difficult to rise up from. For example, if
an individual is born into a family where the children are forced to work to support the
family, these children may be deprived of the opportunity to prosper. They have the
ascribed status of a worker, and have little, if any chance of achieving a more
successful status in life. If the individual's family suffers a great deal of inequality,
and the individual wishes to pursue extended levels of education for greater career
opportunities, because of their ascribed circumstances they may not have the
opportunity.
Most people look down upon lower classes, failing to realize that inequality deprives
those people of the equal rights to prosperity. This occurs not only in a few societies,
but all around the world.
According to the social conflict paradigm, society is a complex system characterized by
inequality and conflict, which generate social change. Power and privilege are
distributed unequally by social class, race, gender and age. These inequalities are often
reinforced in societal institutions (Macionis 19).
My participation in the class exercise allowed me to have an experience of life through
the eyes a lower class individual. Even though the real world is much more extreme than
the class exercise, I was still able to understand society and its levels of inequality.
After experiencing society from a different perspective, I realize that although society
has changed from the days of extreme inequality, it still needs much attention to
equalizing the privileges between the different levels of stratification.
Bibliography
Works Cited
Macionis, John and Gerber, Linda. Sociology. 3rd ed. Prentice-Hall Canada Inc.: Ontario,
1999.