Social class refers to the groupings of people who share roughly similar incomes and wealth, similar education levels and similar occupations (Rossides, 1990). Social equality means that the groups have equal wealth and income, equal education level and occupation unlike social inequality whereby the social groups have a different education level, occupation and wealth. The Six Part Model is a structure that categorizes the American society into different classes based on the economical, occupational and occupational factors (Rossides, 1990).
Poverty is a term used to describe a particular group in U.S whose wages are very low and they are dependent on government welfare of one kind or another (Rossides, 1990). Poverty contributes to economic inequality because the income and wealth are not shared equally. Ideology, power and social class have contributed to political and social inequality. People have different ideas where the level of social classes should be. Powerful politicians often denounce any effort on the part of political opponents to point out the difference between the wealthy and other classes (Rossides, 1990). This leads to political inequalities.
The gap between the richest and the poorest has widened over the past years. In the United States the distribution of wealth and resources is done with biasness. There is inequality in the distribution of wealth and resources (Rossides, 1990). Twenty percent of families who are the richest earn almost half of all income. The richest family own over eighty percent of all wealth.
The American society has been characterized by inequalities in income and wealth which has expanded in the last past years (Rossides, 1990). This inequality in resources and wealth distribution has continued to widen the gap between the upper and upper-middle and the rest of the class hierarchy. A more inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes in the United States is also revealed in the comparison of industrial societies (Rossides, 1990). The gap between the poor and the rich continues to widen.
In conclusion, the American society is mainly grouped based on the social groups. Wealth gap which is mainly contributed by the difference between the income of the upper class and the poor has led to social grouping and the idea of classlessness in not there. The Six Part Model classifies the society into classes.
References
Rossides, D. W. (1990). Social stratification: The American class system in comparative perspective. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
