Stratification/week9/Ami Kim

1.       Summary

Layering means placing people hierarchically in society. Sociology has long studied stratification and education for various kinds of inequality, including economic inequality, racial and ethnic inequality, gender inequality and other types of inequality. Inequality means that people have an unequal approach to scarce and valuable resources in society. These resources may be economic or political factors such as health care, education, occupation, property and land ownership, and the ability to influence housing and government policies. Sociologists are interested in things like where inequality comes from. Modern sociologists define stratification in terms of socio-economic status based on Max Weber's Adier, who saw three main aspects of stratification. These three characteristics, power source, property, and pressage, are combined to represent someone's social class or socioeconomic status. The origin of inequality began with the transition from a hunter-gatherer to a horticulture society. The transition from a hunter-gatherer society to a horticulture society led to the creation of surplus goods, which led to inequality in the accumulation of wealth. Over time, Hobbes and Locke expressed the idea that there should be equality in society in the 17th and 18th centuries, and their ideas helped people to think that inequality is the result of social institutions and the actions and intentions of certain groups and not the will of God. Another sociologist, Joel Charon, said the reason why inequality continues in society is because the rich and strong protect the system of inequality and technology increases inequality by facilitating prosperity among generations. The economic class, along with race and gender, forms the opportunities, privileges, and inequality individuals and groups have experienced. Also, increasing U.S. immigrants and reducing jobs in other countries show that the biggest problem American workers face is unfair competition with immigrants from the United States and abroad.

2.       What is interesting / what did you learn

What was interesting was that culture taught acceptance of inequality. According to the study, Americans believe in equality, but they consider inequality fair. The system of inequality is protected by the fact that poor people are poor because they are lazy, irresponsible or have little. People say they tend to be unequal not because they are happy with their situation, but because over time they think their situation is natural and normal and that is what life expects.

3.       Discussion point

The article says that education helps strengthen acceptance of inequality. The nation also makes sure that children get the best education from elite or wealthy families and that they get the best education from their own children when they grow up. However, it is highly likely that families who do not have that much economic ability will not receive a high level of education. How do you think we should solve this inequality?