Social Class

This week in Sociology we talked more about deviance and social class, but focused more on the aspect of prestige and class as opposed to deviance. We looked at the way that people end up based on their surroundings and how it just makes sense that rich people are rich and poor people are poor. While for some people it definitely has something to do with the choices they make in their life, much of the point of Sociology is to find out what drove them to act the way they do. It's not unreasonable to suggest that someone's surroundings exposed them differently to things that could adversely affect their development in society, such as drugs or alcohol. Some people believe that it is possible for anyone to move anywhere in America's social class system, but as we saw in the coin activity, lower class citizens are set to fail. The game was made in a way that would start everyone out as equals, but even that was unlike real life. Even though there was that massive advantage, three or four people ended up with all of the money in the whole class. Capitalism is a really great thing, but the end result truly is one person with a monopoly on every industry holding all of the money and setting all of the prices. I hope that I do not have to see the day that happens. It doesn't have to be that way, but as soon as greed sets in and as soon as people start climbing all over each other to get to the top, people have no choice but to step out because all of their coins are gone.

It wasn't our fault, we just weren't lucky like the others were. This is an excuse that would be really looked down upon in American culture, but most of the time, the one percent of people who end up with one third of the country's wealth are only there because of opportunities given to them because of the fact that they were born somewhere at some time that made it advantageous for them to be in a certain field, and they excelled at it. That's all. It really comes down to the luck of the draw, and we have to live with the life we have been given, whether that means being stuck rich or poor.