Part One
3. Sociology, social inequality and social structure
On sociology, I have learned about means through which human status can be improved in terms of social and economical development. The major components of sociology entail organizations in form of cultural practices, human activities, religious practices and policies governing these organizations. Sociology aims at developing effective and efficient techniques of improving social life through human activities. Sociology concepts have been formulated by various sociologists such as Max Weber. Sociologist aimed at defining sociology in terms of interactions, cultural practices and resource management.
On social inequality, there is uneven distribution of resources in terms of development of social life. This has facilitated formulation of policies which favor certain class of individuals as opposed to others. The policies tackle social aspects such as education, health care, families and poverty among others. Social injustices have been propagated by these inequalities due to differences in social status (Scott, 2010). Social inequalities cut across individuals, governance and among countries. Factors that dictates social inequality includes racial bias, gender bias and resource distribution among the communities. Policies on social factors such as employment, health care, education and food favor a specified class of people while discriminating others. This results to social disparities and inequalities in terms of economic empowerment. Basics facilities such as food, shelter and clothing are the main factors to curb social inequalities. Formulation and implementation of proper and effective policies will see to it that poverty level is decreased, living standard improved and improvement of social life. My experiences of social inequalities have been reflected in access to health care. The amount of hospital bills one has to pay to access essential health care is huge such that only the rich will have the cutting edge. On basis of employment, majority of the young people have no jobs as job market is flooded. The few who have full time job retire at old age thus incrrease3 in unemployment rate.
On social structure, the measure of prosperity and improvement of social life is dictated by laid down structures of governance and at a personal level. Social structure is tackled on basis of scale. The design of association of among major companies or class of people affects social structure. On lower level, social structure is defined as association of people and various organizations in relation to economic development. Each social division plays a vital role in improvement of human life. As a community, there exists social structure in relation to poverty level, education, health care and association. Social structure has got its advantages and disadvantages. The importance of social structure is to enhance healthy competition among individuals in terms of wealthy accumulation, economic empowerment and management of resources (Jody & Dawn, 2011). The structure also dictates the implementation of policies in different fields such as political arena, cultural behaviors, and economic management. Policy makers put ion to consideration the viability of policies with regards to social structure. On the negative side, social structure brings about social inequality, escalating poverty levels and favors in terms of human rights.
Part Two
S1) In his theory of Stratification Marx claims location in the social hierarchy (political economy) is based upon ownership of private property. Describe Max Weber’s rebuttal to Marx’s lopsided, economic analysis. Include a description of Marx’s model in your response.
Marx’s Model
Karl Marx believed that developed the theory of social stratification from his observations of he capitalist economies of the 19th century. He believed that these societies were stratified by class. He also believed that classes made up the main strata in all societies. He also believed that the economic system determined the classes under which people were categorized into. He believed that people with the highest economic power controlled the rest of the society and hence held all the power (Margaret, 2010).
He observed that there were two main classes of people under the then industrialized capitalism. One class was more privileged than the other. The named the class of people who owned and controlled the means of production Bourgeoisie. The class consisted of those people that owned industries and the means of transport and were also the employers. This class made up the upper class.
He named the lower class Proletariat which consisted of laborers who did not own or sell anything apart from their own time. However, he came to recognize a third class of people who he called petty Bourgeoisie. They included such people as doctors, lawyers and owners of small businesses. They were richer than the average laborers but did not control the resources required for production.
Max Weber’s rebuttal of Marx’s analysis
Max Weber refuted the claims that power accrued purely from economic power. He argued that that power had other sources that were totally independent of economic control. He claimed that power gained through economic control was not legit. However, economic power could result from gaining power that based on other non-economic foundations. He also claimed that respect given to an individual in a society, which he called social status, could not be brought about by either economic or power in general as power was not the only determining factor for status. However, social status could bring about general and economic power. He therefore thought of Marx equation of power to economic power as mistaken (Löwith, 1993).
S2. Social inequality: poverty
Poverty can be defined as on basis of personal status and on a structured basis. On an individual basis, poverty is defined as the state of lack of essential of basic human needs such as clean water, better healthcare, food and clothing among others. In this perspective, the level of poverty is factored by an individual capabilities and abilities. Poverty develops on a personal scale as a result of negative character towards improvement such as laziness, high rate of illiteracy and inadequate information on resources acquisition and development. This theory stipulates that personal efforts dictate the type of rewards an individual receives.
On structural basis, poverty is defined as lack of essential resources for development and advancement of human life. This is caused by failure of the governance structure to implement viable policies, which favors economic and social empowerment. In United states, high rate of unemployment, poor salaries and wage structure and poor policies on labor has led to escalating levels of poverty in the society (Daniel & Martha, 2002). Scarcity of well paying and full time jobs in the job market has factored rise of poverty in families, with high dependency ratio in relation to number of family members, escalating prices of essential goods and access to essential services.
American attitude and policies regarding the poor is entirely base on policy makers. Poor policies on poverty management have resulted to high dependency ratio on the side of the government. This is due to inadequate employment in the job market and negative attitudes towards certain types of jobs at a persona level. Poor people are blamed for their situation partly because of their incompetence and partly become of system of governance.
References
Daniel, T., & Martha, L. (2002). American attitude towards poverty and poor. Population
reference bureau. Retrieved from
http://www.prb.org/Articles/2002/AmericanAttitudesAboutPovertyandthePoor.aspx
Jody, C. & Dawn, T. (2011). Social structure and emotion. New York: Academic press
Löwith, K. (1993). Max Weber and Karl Marx. London: Routledge.
Margaret, L. (2010). Sociology: The Essentials. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
Scott, S. (2010). Social inequality in a global age. California: Pine forge press
