Hierarchies of power, wealth and prestige

Hierarchies of power, wealth and prestige

How social status relate to their social hierarchies

The people I interviewed defined Social hierarchies in society as a form of inequality in the community, which is caused by the distribution of resources.  Right from childhood, they got to learn that our society is divided into classes. This is through sports competitions, spelling competition, and grading. They got to learn that in this world, one is ranked according to how favored, better, and smarter. When it comes to adults, one is considered significant according to how many cars, houses, or career titles one owns. The way people perceive status and give quick ranks to people shows that people consider hierarchical social organization.  People also believe that knowing the social status one belongs promotes successful social interactions and helps in defining roles in our society. They farther argued that people vary in skills and traits; thus, we select who to follow or to listen to or to follow if they have higher skills and traits than them. Therefore, organizing soil groups based on their hierarchies helps to maximize production and also promotes cohesion in society.

How they conceive their socials status in the social hierarchy

They further stated that Organizing social groups into social hierarchies also assists in allocating limited resources efficiently. This includes resources such as food, social learning, and individual motivation. Individuals who are always at the top of the hierarchy usually have more sources of wealth as compared to those individuals that are the bottom of the hierarchy (Guo, 2016). This affects mortality and morbidity. However, there will always be losers in this hierarchy; thus, these hierarchies are usually pervasive across human cultures. However, social hierarchies usually appear naturally from society. Most of them believed that their social status was in the middle of the hierarchy, others believed that they were at the bottom while others believed that they were at the top

Does their stratification refer to ethnic stratification?

Their stratification does not refer to ethnic stratification; rather, it is based on the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige. For example, they believe that in the united states, it is very easy to distinguish between the halves and the halve not. The Rockefellers are still enjoying the wealth their family members gained back in the 19^th century, while some black American families who were involved in the slave trade are still languishing in poverty. Thus their social status is based on social, economic status. This normally depends on wealth, education, and career. These three factors determine the social class one belongs to. This is further termed as the class system.  In most countries, people choose the social status to belong, and one is usually locked in social status.

Property

Karl Marx divided the society into two major classes and one minor class, the capitalist, the small capitalist, and the worker class. This was based on whether some means of production, such as factories, tools, and machines are owned and whether one has hired workers. Capitalists were those people that owned the method and tools of production while employing workers. While workers were those people that did not own any means of production but used to be employed by capitalists. Small capitalist were those people that owned the means of production but were not used to employing others. These were people like tradesmen, doctors, or lawyers. Mark further argued that given the three classes in society, exploitation will always be there (Guo, 2016). For capitalists to gain more profits, they would force the workers to work for long hours only to receive a small compensation. Marx predicted that a time would come that workers would revolve against such impunity. Despite marks prediction, such economic exploitation and inequality still exist in society today. Wealth is referred to as assets and income a person has, while income is defined as the money one receives after a certain time. Wealth includes assets such as stock bonds and saving accounts, while income includes salaries.

Power

They further argued that the second aspect of social stratification is power or the ability to influence people to get prestige and wealth.  Power and wealth are usually related. This is evident in the lives of people who have top government positions. Wealthy people are also thought to be politically active to gain power. Poor people rarely involve themselves in politics, given the fact that they are powerless to affect the process. Wealth and power are usually unequally distributed. Elite theorists state that a few individuals have all the power in the united states. Power elites also state that people that come from specific backgrounds and environments hold power in the united states. Conflict theorists also argued that only a few capitalists in the united states have power (Guo, 2016).  The capitalist may have offices in government, but they rarely influence government policies and politics, but they always protect their interests. On the other hand, pluralist theorist argues that power is not in the hands of the elite or a few people in the society, instead it is usually in the hands of diverse groups in the society. For example, citizens are known to affect the political system through voting systems. While businesses and governments usually balance the power of lab pour. In a democratic country, no person can be termed as a powerless individual.

How objectivity and subjectivity is experienced in the social status

Prestige

There is always inequality in the distribution of prestige in society. Although power and wealth are objectives, prestige is usually subjective because it depends on people’s attitudes and perceptions (Guo, 2016). Prestige is also not tangible as compared to money or influence. Occupation is known to define prestige. Professionals are usually ranked based on the level of their income and education. Occupations also depend on the social status of an individual, such as gender, age, and race. A professor is highly ranked, which is contrary to being a female racist minority. As a result, a female racist minority may suffer from resentment, anxiety, and depression.