Social Stratification

Social Stratification

Social stratification is the concept of classifying people into a hierarchy. Status is usually based on power, prestige, and property. This concept is one of the most unequal systems in terms of distributing resources among society.

In today's Western societies, we are basically divided into three classes depending on wealth. Lower class would be considered people poor. Middle class people are in the middle of the hierarchy and have the most people. In America, if you make anywhere from about $25,000 to $100,000, than you would be considered middl class. The upper class makes up about 20% of America. The top 1% in this group own over 40% of the wealth in America alone. As you can see, the social stratification concept in America has distributed the wealth in America very unevenly.

There may be better social concepts out there but I don't think social stratification in America is terrible. I was born into a middle class family. I was very fortunate to have parents who worked very hard to provide for their family. However, my parents came to America with nothing. They were immigrants who had to leave their home in Vietnam after the war. They barley knew English and had hardly any support. My dad worked very hard to educate himself to provide for his family. We aren't rich but we were living comfortable. There may be better opportunities for the wealthy in America, but that doesn't mean the lower class or middle class have absolutely not opportunities to move up the ranking system. We have tax money helping people who don't work. We have free education. We have libraries that can provide us with free books and easy access to the internet. We can go network and associate ourselves with people outside of our social classes to seek better opportunities. I hate it when people complain about the unequal wealth and power distribution. These complainers have opportunities to become part of the upper class if they want to, it's just all they...