Question

Due to changes in social structures such as the economy and corporate America, some argue the American Dream is no longer available to all Americans. On the other hand, others still believe anyone can climb the social ladder and experience social mobility. Think about whether you agree or disagree with the idea that social mobility is achievable for most Americans.

Write an essay expressing your opinion about social mobility and the American Dream. Be sure to explain the sociological terms structural mobility and life chances in your response. Integrate these terms and concepts to discuss whether the American Dream is achievable for most Americans.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Conflict theory is a theory propounded by Karl Marx that claims society is in a state of perpetual conflict due to competition for limited resources. It holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity.

Marx stated that there are 2 classes of society. These are the upper-class and the lower-class. The upper classes are bolstered by a life of leisure. They are endowed with ownership of property, production and abundance. The lower-class on the other hand he believed was doomed to a life of hard work and would be at the mercy of people who owned the means of production.

Bourgeoisie: These are the people who own the means of production. Through this ownership, they exploit the lower classes of society. Example, a landowner need only pay taxes for his land and minimum wage to his workers. He could yield great profits from the produce of his land

Proletariat: These are the lower classes that consist of the wage-earners and workers of society. Their major resource is, in fact, their labour work. Example, these are the farmers working on the land. They are people who earn minimum wage and are at the mercy of the landowner for their basic needs.

Structural mobility is when individuals from one class are easily able to shift to the next class and vice versa. This would mean that one’s class isn’t a fixed status and hard work and opportunities are enough for one to be able to shift to a different level on the social order.

Even though the democratic style of government has made it easier to achieve the American dream, this economic climate and capitalist structure has made it relatively difficult to do so.

The “American Dream” suggests that an individual would have to excel at college, get a job, get married, start a family, live in a home in the suburbs, own a car or two and have sufficient savings to retire at the right age.

However, according to Robert Merton’s Social strain theory, it is the society that places its expectations on people but the society itself does not give the people the means to achieve this dream. Since high taxation, inflation rates, housing and fuel prices make it difficult to achieve this dream, society isn’t making it easy for people to achieve this dream.