Essay 1
One great American historian Werner Sombart, 1906, once referred to America as in the Canaan of capitalism, implying that America was meant to offer the European capitalists the “Promised Land” and this they in deed found once they got to America. Capitalism led to the rise of owners and non owners of the means of investments, an investor would set up a manufacturing company and the non owners would then be used as sources of labor and this led to class development in the early (America Lichtenstein, Nelson. 2005).
Some of the main characteristics of a capitalist economy include the existence of private ownership of the means of production, industrial production of commodities for sale and the existence of the social class structure (Werner Sombart, 1906). The social class structure is designed in such a way that private owners to the means of production are grouped in one hand while the free wage earners are grouped on the other. This type of social grouping was still just a strategy of ensuring the expansion of profit accumulation by the private investors.
This is the type of economy that controlled the American economy for a greater part of the 14th-16th century and the situation was made worse by the fact that cheap labor would be obtained from slaves that were obtained from Africa. Goods would thus be manufactured in America and shipped out of the country to find markets in the Europe and this saw to the development greater class disparities in the world. Transportation industry boomed with the continued spread of industrialization that had made production even a lot easier (Grant, J. 1988). The policies that governed the labor market then was mainly to maximize profit to the investors and whenever a machine would be invented, the capitalist would purchase it and this would see to it that a big portion of the human work force would be laid off.
Once laid off from the only job that would have sustained life, the situation worsened for the non owners to the means of production and this led to the rise of street families and massive lack in a time of abundance. This resonated in massive lack of buyers to the already produced good and the capitalist began experiencing decline in profit accumulation (Lichtenstein, Nelson. 2005). This combined with the American independence in the 1776 ushered in the reign of mixed economy.
A mixed economy is one in which there exists both private ownership and state ownership. The government owns some of the means of production and these include industries. The government therefore becomes one of the employers besides the private investors. In such an economy, there exists a free level playing ground for all market players but the government controls the trends in the market through the formulation of policies (New York Times. April 23, 2010). America is a democratic country and that implies that leaders are elected into office and ought to fend for the rights of the electorate this sees the leaders formulate policies that would favor the populace at all the time and in this manner the government managed to convince the population that there was no more capitalism and the equality before the eye of the law, a belief that the spirit of nationalism and patriotism spreads, managed to dilute the class phenomena.
The government tries as much as possible to ensure that each American pupil receives education and such government policies as the requirement to get on to life support for the needy and the equal access to health facilities make life appear more equal. This is so mainly because no American should miss the basic need and that include housing, food and clothing and the government has policies that ensures this is achieved. Quality life is assured to the populace thro the subsidized rate in government health facilities and the assurance of employment by the government. This has in the recent past been hard to attain given the rise in the levels of unemployment but by and large the American government tries to ensure that no citizen goes without quality life.
The government does promote innovation and encourage talent oriented professions such as the entertainment industry and this offers more employment opportunity to the country’s population.
In a nut shell, all the effort that the government has placed in trying safe guard the well being of the citizens has managed to dispel the notion of class despite its existence (Greenhouse, Steven and Michael Barbaro. 2006). The class difference is still present in America and this is seen in the existence of private membership clubs and this target only a portion of the population most probably the wealthy. In the places of employment there are senior members of staff and junior members, this by default means that there exists these two categories. In the entertainment industry there exist veterans those who have been in the scene since time immemorial and they must amassed more wealth than their late entrant counterparts.
Despite this, Americans try as much a s possible to a void class issues and through integration the population appear more united with each and every life in the street given the respect, value and worth in equal measure. This belief in equality has shaped the politics and policies of the country a great deal, any citizen is free to vie any political position and would stand equal opportunity of being elected, through the primaries the population gather and collect money for their political leaders to be. This improves accountability in the elected leaders as the feel obliged to deliver to the electorate.
Had there been a class conscious American population, the political scene would have been a murky one with instances of segregation coming to the fore. Class segregation would be worse than racial segregation as the wealthy would do all it takes to get to positions of power and once there they would affect policies that only safe guards their interests at the expense of the electorate. In places of employment the script would be no difference and without knowing it capitalism would sneak back into the market (Michael Zweiq. 2006).. With America being the world strongest economy, this would not reflect positively in world economy, furthermore the strong American economy has solicited for some respect for the American population and no one would learn of a class difference in the American people.
Essay 2
An individual’s class in the American society is determined by a number of factors key among these factors include: income, education, wealth and occupation. There a group of individuals born in wealthy families and they do not need to work hard enough either in education or in the employment but would inherit the wealth of the family (Bines, H.E. and Thel, S. 2004). Others have worked hard from scratch, through receipt quality education and hard work in employment to rose within the class ladder while yet there are other who without quality education have invested in certain careers out of which they struck gold and it is ion this category that the entertainment sector falls. A number of entertainers are known to live flashy lifestyle while most of them having received very little or no education at all.
The sentiment that with hard work an individual would rise from a lower class to another is in deed a very fair one. Most of the people in formal employment hold the given position most probably through their academic qualifications and competence of service delivery in whichever positions they hold. Should one make an attempt to further his/her education and try to master all the secrets of trade thus perfecting his or her competence then possibility of the individual earning a promotion are high. The job groups that individuals are in determine how much they earn and a promotion from one job group to another would translate into a monthly pay check with more figures than the previous one.
Those who attain the middle class or even a higher social class through business or in the entertainment industry too have the obligation to work hard, musicians spend sleep less nights in studios recording songs after which they spend even more time perfecting their dance moves so as to impress their audience and the rate of hard work is no difference and so is the return (Greenhouse, Steven and David Leonhardt. 2006). An individual who goes back to school so as to earn a promotion works hard white collar style while that other individual who spends hours mastering a break dance does his blue collar way but one fact is common in the two, at the end of the month they both receive a better pay check than the previously did.
Social class does not to a larger extent restrain the social life of the American population, they meet in recreational places and have fun regardless of an individual’s class provided they can pay for the services that the receiver in these places then the freedom of association apply to all of them equally (Grant, J. 1988). Discos are full of revelers for diverse American background, sports stadiums too and the people enjoy a basket ball match without no concern whatsoever for the class that one belongs in. a phrase in the nations national anthem that it is one nation under God make each American look at the other as an equal.
Segregation of class would only be evident when in the official spheres. Managers converge with managers as they transact business deals and in such gatherings such junior officers, who of course belong to a lower social class, as the chauffeurs are left back in the cars while house attendants offer drinks to the dignitary (ibid). They do not take pert in the discussions going on. This type of restraint would not be considered a segregation parse; it all has to do with ones competence. When managers meet to do business, what contribution would a driver have in such a gathering? This explains why he/ she would be left in the car to do just that for which he/she was hired.
Till very late, race and gender were great determiners of a job position that one held in the United States of America. The whites considered themselves superiors to the blacks who in turn were not presented with equal opportunities to receive formal education. The blacks are descendants of their slave fore fathers who had been shipped from Africa to go offer cheap labor in the capitalist whites. All that they were to do was to offer the blue collar job by doing that which the white considered untouchable. This notion persisted even well after independence and it negatively affected the overall development of America as places habited by blacks such as Queens lagging behind in the development score cards.
In the American society then, a black pupil would not attend a common school with a white pupil and this schooling system came much later as initially blacks were not entitled to any form of education. In social places the two races would never meet or even share a bus (Michael, C and John, I. 2000). The effects of this type of segregation were felt for a very long time and were detrimental on the Africans. They were in most instances considered thieves and muggers and their neighborhoods were no go places for the white who kept citing security concerns.
In the entertainment industry, when the blacks introduced the HIP HOP culture the white were reluctant to accept the music genre that constituted lots of rap and narration and the blacks on the other side used the music to depict whites negatively, they would always represent whites as being extremely oppressive and selfish and in a way this attitude of the blacks always considering themselves inferior to the whites played a role in the spread of the segregation as they would always avoid the whites.
It took the intervention of different rights group to change the mindset. It was till the year 2008 that the first black president was elected into office despite the country having been independence for more than two hundred years with the blacks’ population being even to that of the whites. Another factor that played a role in the acceptance of equality among the different American races was the fact that there were arising several instances of cross breed citizens (Michael Zweiq. 2004). The whites were copulating and having children with the blacks and as these special groups increase so did the need to do a way with the racial segregation.
Gender too was a determiner of the profession that one settled into. Women till early eighteenth century were not allowed to take part in elections and that meant that they would not be erected into positions of leadership. To this day, instances of racial and gender discrimination have receded quite considerably and one would rightly state that there is no more segregation in America. All employment opportunities are given equally to all applicants and the most qualified is awarded the job regardless of the gender or color (Kristen, S. 2009).
In retrospect, all that determines the class that an individual belongs to is the amount of income he/she receives annually and any factor that would affect his earnings would thus be affecting his/her social; class.
Essay 3
Labor immigrants are those people who have moved from one nation to seek employment in another country. America is considered by many countries world wide as being the land of opportunities and therefore leads in the world with the number of immigrant workers. People move from their countries where they could not find employment to try their luck in America. Most of these countries where more of American immigrants migrate from are found in Africa and the Middle East and the immigrants come to the country offering cheap labor most of which unskilled and are willing to do a way with their former citizenship to acquire the American’s. (Greenhouse, Steven and David Leonhardt. 2006).
Globalization of employment on the other hand is where an organization accepts and hires individual from all over the world regardless of their countries of origin. Most of firms that offer this kind of employment structures have online jobs or have branches in foreign countries. They normally constitute research organization and a variety of non governmental organizations.
The two phenomenons have brought a complete overhaul on the modes of societal stratifications. Internationally there are two ways that a society is stratified and the manner of stratification is largely influenced by the type of economy in that applies in the country (Michael Zweiq. 2006). Capitalism encourages the caste system if stratification and this was adversely felt in India and other parts of the Asian continent. In a caste system one would not break a way from one caste to another in such a set up, there are born priests, born lawyers, born craftsmen etc and one would get born and pick up the family profession without deviating. The class system that is born of the mixed economy offers from for movement from one class to another depending on how hard one would work. In a class system one would be born in a wealthy family but with poor wealth management they would end up poorer than their fore fathers.
The class system in most of the mixed economies is more advantageous than the Indian caste system in which an individual born in a family of craftsmen would never become a doctor or receive a formal education. But thanks to the spread of mixed market economies and notion of class system is receiving approvals world wide. Such backward ways of stratification are only overcome through globalization of employment and immigrant workmanship (Kuper, Adam. 2004). When people from such cultures break a way and get top America, they assimilate the American way and spread development in their areas of origin.
The two are as different just as they are similar in relation to class perspectives. The fact that they offer employment to people of foreign countries is a similarity but the globalization differs in that it does not require one to leave his country of origin and should they leave their countries of origin, they would still retain their citizenship unlike labor immigrants that do a way with their original citizenship.
When a person leaves his country to get to America he/ she get absorbed into the American class stratifications and would be rate according to the classes available in the American society. Should the individual be a learned one he/she would get a formal job and earn a decent pay package thus belong to a better class (Michael Zweiq. 2006). Other immigrants have also in the past entered the entertainment industry and continue to make lots of money that enable them belong to higher American social classes. Some of these people send money to support their families back home and this is a trend that has strained their income and the effect of this would at times get as detrimental as seeing to it that the individual live in a class by far much lower than he/ she ought to have lived in.
Globalization of employment of employment on the contrary offers a different platform for stratification. The individual is a citizen of a different country yet work in another. He is therefore stratified depending on his residential country (Alexander, Britton and Jorissen . 2010). A person working in Indonesia for an American company gets paid as though he was an American, in American dollars, this is translated into the local currency and such an individual would always be of the higher social class back in his country depending on how much he earns.
Another individual who works for an American firm, in America but still retains his Indonesian nationalism would be stratified twice, first by the American society among which he works and then back in Indonesia where he originates. Depending on his earnings he would belong to a different class in the states and another in Indonesia, this is normally determined by the strength of their countries of origin.
One other similarity that Globalization of employment and immigrant laborers have in common is the tie with their mother country they are always obliged to send back aid to their relations in their mother nations and those on global employment remit taxes to their local government (Kuper, Adam. 2004). Such people include sports men among others.
Some of the key players that have made such possibilities as globalization of employment are the development of the information and communication technology and improvements in the transport sector. Through these two the world is now a global village and one would easily log into the internet and access his or her office that is physically situated millions of miles a way. Through office automation and online tax remittance, those employed from without their countries are closely monitored and would not evade tax payment and this means that some of these people are taxed twice, first by the employing country then by their country of origin.
In conclusion, revolution in the ICT and transport sector among the other many contributors to the development of these new possibilities have widened the playing ground and right now a person can work in any country without necessarily having to seek employment in his country of birth. A number of Americans work for such aid organizations as the USAID-United States Aid Organization, in many countries in Africa and the Latin America without being physically present in these countries. Such Americans belong to the American social stratification system and are placed in social classes depending on their American lifestyles.
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