Class Structure Essay, Research Paper
Class Structure Our society is based on money, and therefore a class system has developed. The class structure in our society is divided based on wealth and income; the more an individual has the higher class one is in. Opposed to some other countries where the only way to move between classes is through marriage, in our society, an individual can easily move between class by simply obtaining more wealth. Our society places a huge emphasis on wealth and income. As observed in the movie, Class Wars, the higher class an individual was in, the more chances that individual had to make it. There is a direct relation to this observation form the movie, and in our society. The individuals that are in a higher class do have more chances and opportunities. Those people that come from better off families have more chances in life then those individuals coming form less fortunate families. Class has a direct relation to the opportunities presented to a person or a group of persons. Those individuals coming form a wealthy family have the opportunity to go to a good school, both high school and college. Those people living in the inner city and you are from lower class situations are lucky to be in schools at all, and going to college for many of these individuals is next to impossible. Our society is arranged so that those with wealth do not loose it. The government has a number of laws in their books that help the wealthy maintain their wealth. The wealthy own the most property and resources; therefore they also have a lot of voting power. Because of the amount of resources these individuals own, when it comes to making laws, the government will make sure that they are able to keep their wealth. The amount of people in this upper class of wealth is less than 10% of the population, although they control about 90 % of the wealth. Because of this distribution and power in the government, these wealthy individuals can run their business the way they wish and reap huge profits. The lower class individuals they employ still are paid low wages, thus keeping these individuals in their same class with little to no possible way to advance.
When a company gets into trouble, corporate welfare allows them to stay up and running. If a company goes into debt, they can file bankruptcy and the government will pay off their debts, and the company is still operational. The largest form of corporate welfare was in the price of 500 billion dollars. The government paid the debt, and passed the costs on to the American people via tax increases. Class structure and the distribution of wealth go hand in hand. Based on the amount of wealth an individual has relates directly to the class they are in. The more wealth that an individual has the higher class they are in; less wealth, lower class. The government continually helps these wealthy individuals keep their wealth, and to a certain extent, the government helps the poor stay poor. Without a change in the current government structure, the individuals in the lower class will have very little chance, if any, to advance in the class structure, a serious problem within our society.