Social Class

Equality is a very important aspect to American society. All people expect equal chance, opportunity and choice. One concept though that exists in society today, social class, contradicts our expectations of equality. Social class is a large group of people who rank close to one another in wealth, power and prestige. But if our society is supposedly “equal” wouldn’t everyone belong in the same social class? This is why our society is so troubled. We call ourselves equal when there is clearly a huge distinction between the poor and the rich. One fact that I read about that really alarmed me about our society was, “If a 1 ½ inch block were to equal $500 of income, the average American is only 7 feet off the ground, the average family would be 12 feet off the ground while some families incomes propels past the top of Mt. Everest (29,028 feet).” This really opened my eyes to see how our society is really split up when it’s supposedly equal. This also relates to the 99% and how many people think social mobility is possible with education and hard work. This analogy though is not what society is like today. Many people move up in social class because of wealth, power and prestige. Power is the ability to get your way despite the desires of other people. Wealth is property and income and prestige is respect or regard. Now the question is, should success and high social class be determined by education and hard work or power, prestige and wealth? This is the reason social mobility has been very hard for many Americans today. It’s hard to see a change in the future too because it seems like the rich (power elite) keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. Hopefully things can turn around for future generations and every one can have a better equal opportunity and social class can be determined by education and hard work over power and prestige.