In: Economics
Instructions: Social stratification is the systematic study of
inequality – the distribution of valued goods and...
Instructions: Social stratification is the systematic study of
inequality – the distribution of valued goods and opportunities.
Inequality is a feature of all societies and sociologists have
studied both the mechanisms through which inequality operates, as
well as how these mechanisms and overall measures of inequality
vary between societies and across history. In primitive hunting and
gathering societies, inequality was relatively low as the few goods
and opportunities were distributed relatively equally across
society. In the Middle Ages, inequality rose as a tiny group of
elites lived entirely apart from the rest of the population with no
significant middle class. Inequality in the United States dropped
significantly between the 1940s to the 1970s, and the middle
classes enjoyed more prosperity than they had historically or
experience today. In recent years in the United States,
sociologists and others have pointed to a dramatic increase in
inequality, as compared to countries with similar levels of
economic development, education and political systems. Inequality
has also increased in countries other than the United States,
suggesting that some factors influencing inequality are shared in
the industrial world. However, inequality has risen more quickly in
the U.S. than other countries, suggesting that several factors may
be unique to our society. Write an essay that shows your
understanding of the factors that explain the increase in economic
inequality in the last two decades in the United States. Please
provide specific examples from your book or the real world to
support your arguments.