Social Stratification In Shark Tank

The world is socially divided up in many different ways. Some countries divide themselves by race and gender while others divide themselves by occupation. Farmers usually live near farms while business men and women tend to live near the cities. One known way cities and nations are divided is by wealth and class. There are some countries that are very poor to the point people are dying of starvation. One the other hand, there are those countries that are filthy rich and pretty much made of money. Social stratification is “the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige; applies to both nations and to people within a nation, society, or other group” (Henslin, 2011). Social stratification …show more content…
If each show was closely examined, there is a division in class. One show I really enjoy watching is Shark Tank. Shark Tank is a reality television series that features a panel of very successful entrepreneurs called “sharks” There are then normal ordinary people that come in with their own products and businesses looking for investments from the sharks. The sharks are all very wealthy and successful people. The sharks are all in the same social class. Social class is “a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and prestige” (Henslin, 2011). Some of the sharks were born into poverty and made it out successful. The ability to move from the lower class to the upper class is social mobility. Social mobility is “movement up or down the social class order” (Henslin, 2011). The sharks are almost seen as kings and queens. Since they are very wealthy and successful in life, the aspiring entrepreneurs come into the meeting trying to impress each shark with their products or business and show them how much money has already been made and how much can be made if they invest. The individuals that come in looking for investments are typically middle class individuals. They are comfortable with the income coming in, but they would love to see more coming in. Most of them don’t even do it for the money. They do it because the genuinely enjoy trying to run a …show more content…
Human beings are trained from a very young age to look at money as the most important thing. Society has and always will be divided by how much money one makes their wealth and properties. I believe people like having classes in society because it gives them a sense of order and organization. It’s easier for one to judge someone based off of their occupation and how much money they make. A person that has a high paying job is automatically respected more than someone who is unemployed or making a small amount of money. If we are constantly judging people based off of their wealth and possessions, there is no way a classless society can exist. Overall, the class makeup in American society today is the upper, middle, and lower class. Each class is treated differently based off of their amount of income. Due to the way most Americans were raised, the first thing someone would pay attention to about another person would be their occupation and the amount of money they make. It’s hard for people to judge someone based off of their personality traits. With that being said, there is no way a classless society can