Personally I would rather live in a society with low inequality but not particularly a society in which no inequality exists. One of my main views is that if a society had no inequality then the pay for what a doctor earns would be the same as what a janitor would earn. I personally believe that some distinction in regards to the amount of effort, knowledge, training, etc. ought to be taken into account in regards to inequality. Some jobs require extensive knowledge, training, liability, risk, and time and if one is to blanketly decree that every job is to be paid the same amount then why would one go through the trouble of going to college and medical school when one could become a EMT out of highschool and earn the same amount of pay. Unless
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However, after reading this chapter I learned many new things regarding social stratification and the complexities that are involved with it. For instance, I find the idea of the four major criteria of class distinction (i.e. similar economic interests, similar life outcomes/opportunities, similar attitudes/beliefs, similar potential to engage in collective action) as something that is deeply important to better classifying and grouping people together. A group of people might share the same amount of income but could have vastly different opportunities available to them. Using just income to define class is problematic. There are no clear cut boundaries to where a class ought to end and a new class begins. Another issue is that the amount of income might not be as important as the source of income (i.e. how the income is gained). How one’s Socioeconomic Status is calculated involves many factors. Another thing to take into account is the history of inequality. Consider the postwar period of the 1940s through the 1970s. This period was a historical low in terms of economic equality. It wasn’t until the recession of the 1970s that inequality started to rise again. In comparing the level of inequality of the United States to that of other countries it is found that United States Economic inequality is twice that of Sweden and one-third more than most European
However, after reading this chapter I learned many new things regarding social stratification and the complexities that are involved with it. For instance, I find the idea of the four major criteria of class distinction (i.e. similar economic interests, similar life outcomes/opportunities, similar attitudes/beliefs, similar potential to engage in collective action) as something that is deeply important to better classifying and grouping people together. A group of people might share the same amount of income but could have vastly different opportunities available to them. Using just income to define class is problematic. There are no clear cut boundaries to where a class ought to end and a new class begins. Another issue is that the amount of income might not be as important as the source of income (i.e. how the income is gained). How one’s Socioeconomic Status is calculated involves many factors. Another thing to take into account is the history of inequality. Consider the postwar period of the 1940s through the 1970s. This period was a historical low in terms of economic equality. It wasn’t until the recession of the 1970s that inequality started to rise again. In comparing the level of inequality of the United States to that of other countries it is found that United States Economic inequality is twice that of Sweden and one-third more than most European