THE STUFF OF SOCIAL CLASS

THE STUFF OF SOCIAL CLASS

Question one

Today there are numerous ways that can be used to establish the income of an individual without necessarily enquiring what it is. It is to tell the income of an individual by the kind of hobbies they enjoy, the clothes they wear, or even the style of the haircut. A family with low income is not going to be sailing every weekend. The second way which can be used to tell the amount of money earned by an individual is by looking at the type of vehicle they possess. There are numerous types of cars in today’s market, and each vehicle has its value. Vehicles are classified into various classes, but the most important thing is understanding that all vehicles despite the variation in their value of the capacity to move from one destination to another.

Vehicles can be used as an objectified product in measuring cultural capital. Most wealthy people will opt to purchase big vehicles that have high value to show their cultural capital. That’s why the wealthy individuals will but a Corvette despite having the capacity to buy a Kia Soul. Some of the factors to consider when comparing the above-mentioned cars is the space they have and the number and their ability to move from one destination to another. The Kia soul has preferably lower speed as compared to the Corvette but it can attain the speed limit specified in America. Therefore, in my opinion, a Kia Soul is a more practical and efficient automobile. The only reason as to why an individual would purchase the Corvette is show off of the cultural capital.

Upon comparing the automobiles, I have mention above. It is evident that Corvette is one of the most significant cars in the American vehicle industry, and it can only accommodate two passengers, it is sporting has a big engine at the base model. It can attain a speed of up to 25 mpg on the highway. The base model cost is $55,000. On the other hand, the Kia Soul utilizes a 1.6 L at the base and a 2.0 L with the additional package. The Kia Soul can attain a speed of 31 mpg on the highway. The Kia soul base model costs approximately $16,000.

After analyzing those above stats, then it is evident that no good reason as to why an individual would ever want to buy a Corvette instead of a KIA Soul. The only reason as to why someone but be interested in purchasing a corvette is if you want to show off the level of their cultural capital. The Corvette is not a practical car for any activity other than racing. The Soul is much better in all aspects of practicality. The Soul is classified as an efficient car. It can get you from one destination to another safely and at a lower cost. Most people consider the Soul as a girly car.

Based on the above analysis, I believe that automobiles are among the products which are objectified with the cultural capital of an individual. Buying an expensive car that is not practical is some cultural capital show off.

Question two

Yes, I believe that objects such as furniture, paintings as well as other material things can play an instrumental role in reproducing class inequalities. An observation of something such as food choices can be used to show that cultural capital plays an integral role in the assessment of the healthy habits of an individual(Wurster et al. 2017). Healthy food is expensive. It’s actually not cheap. That is the reason why Whole Foods have been nicknamed ‘Whole Paycheck’ all through the years. There have even been various studies carried out to establish the correlation between cultural capital and the food choices made by individuals. The studies showed the individuals who have high levels of cultural capital usually make healthier food choices as compared to those who have low cultural capital. Burhan et al.,. (2018) postulates that Cultural capital is a recent and potentially powerful explanation behind the inequalities experience in the choice of food choices.

Additionally, this conclusion can be deducted to the fact of where stores such as Whole Foods set up shops. For instance, there are less than five Whole Foods stores that are in the major in the state of Alabama, and the reason behind this is the low economic status in this state. As opposed to more than 15 stores, which are much small and yet very expensive in New Jersey. The occurrence exists despite Alabama being bigger than New Jersey. In conclusion, I believe that simple objects play an integral role in reproducing class inequalities across the globe today.

Question three

            I fall under the lower-middle social class. My family makes decent money, but upon comparing our financial status with other individuals around us, we can say that we fall on the lower side; that’s why I feel that we fall under the lower side of social classes. My social class is deduced from the fact that I drive a Ford Fusion, one of the recent models. Additionally, I also wear new, but cheap clothes and we have enough food.

Question four

I agree with the above statement, and in fact, I have had the experience. My family was in the lower-middle class all through my teenage life. Whenever I see individuals who we schooled together, they do not agree with me whenever I tell them that I have a decent job and am pursuing my second degree and that my wife has a master’s in chemistry. Most of my friends considered me the lower class individuals who would probably work in the construction sites throughout my life. If I continued staying in Gainesville, GA, then definitely I would end up marrying an individual in the middle social class just like me. Most of my friends don’t believe that I have made a few steps towards success; they think that I am that poor boy they schooled with a few years back.

References

Burhan, N. A. S., Razak, R. C., Ibrahim, S., Selamat, M. R., & Rosli, M. R. (2018). Social classes of intelligence, economic growth, and technological achievement: Robust regression and outlier detection. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, 30(2), 148-163.

Kamphuis, C. M., Jansen, T., Mackenbach, J. P., & van Lenthe, F. J. (2015). Bourdieu’s Cultural  Capital about Food Choices: A Systematic Review of Cultural Capital Indicators and an Empirical Proof of Concept. Plus ONE, 10(8), 1-19.           doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0130695

Longhofer, W., & Winchester, D. (2016). Social theory re-wired: New connections to classical      and contemporary perspectives (2nd ed.) [Electronic version].Routledge: New York.

Rice, A. J., Colbow, A. J., Gibbons, S., Cederberg, C., Sahker, E., Liu, W. M., & Wurster, K. (2017). The social class worldviews of first-generation college students. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 30(4), 415-440.