Social inequality as existence of scarce rewards and opportunities

Social inequality as existence of scarce rewards and opportunities

Social inequality is the existence of scarce rewards and opportunities, which are distributed in a discriminatory manner based on various demographics like gender, race, color, ethnicity, and class. Social inequality manifests itself in different ways based on the available rights and resources meant for the people. It can be experienced in differentials treatment by judicial system and police, unequal access to cultural resources and education, and wealth and income inequality. It has been a routine for the people in society to struggle for the scarce resources such that they can satisfy their needs. Since the resources are limited that cannot be shared among all the people equally, the issue of social inequality arises, as the organizations or people in charge of different social places offering the resources distribute to the preferred people. The preference is undertaken in a discriminatory manner as per the race, color, ethnicity, gender, and class, as strategy t satisfy those close to the people in charge of the programs. Conflict theory is the theory that I will utilize in analyzing and discussing whether social inequality exist inevitably or it is created by the people in society.

Conflict theory was first fronted by Karl Max as an explanation that the perpetual conflicts experienced among the people in the society is due to competition for the limited or scarce resources. Karl Max through the conflict explain that the social order in the society is controlled by the powerful and dominant people or organizations rather than being maintained through conformity and consensus. Additionally, the theory asserts that powerful and wealthy people struggle to ensure that they maintain the status through suppression of the powerless and poor in society. Conflict theory is of the view that the groups of individuals in the focus on ensuring they maximize their benefits without considering others. Based on the theory it is clear that social inequality is not natural or inevitable but the humans are manifesting it in society. Social inequality would have been addressed if the wealthy and powerful individuals and groups in society would consider helping or sharing with the powerless and poor. Due to the kind of selfishness demonstrated by the powerful and wealthy groups and individuals, social inequality is something that people have learned to with the community.

Social inequality contains certain recurrent structured patterns regarding the unequal distribution of rewards, wealth, goods, punishments, and opportunities. Racism is the phenomenon where the limited or scarce resources are distributed in unfair manner across various racial lines. For example, in the US, color is one of the factors or racism, which benefits the whites as compared with other Americans. The whites are favored as they enjoy greater access of resources and rights as compared with other Americans. Karl Max through the conflict theory explained that the powerful and wealthy people enjoy the rights, resources while the powerless, and poor are suffering in silence. In the case of racism in the US, the whites are considered wealthy and powerful that they are privileged to access resources and rights as compared with other Americans considered powerless and poor.

Social inequality is measured in two ways inequality of opportunities and inequality of conditions. Inequality of opportunities is about distribution of life chances in an equal manner across the individuals in society. In most cases, inequality opportunities are experienced in measures like treatment by criminal justice system, level of education, and health status. The people from powerful and wealthy families will access quality education, which will enable them to secure highly paid and skilled employment opportunities. The people from the powerless and poor families will not access quality education rendering them unskilled that they undertake odd and unskilled jobs in the society. Due to lack of education, the poor and powerless will have low income that they cannot afford quality healthcare services. Such categories of people are the most affected by illnesses or disease outbreaks, as they do not have information that would help them to practice preventive measures. The treatment in the criminal justice system favors the powerful and wealthy people as they can afford the services of lawyers to represent them in court. Justice cannot be done to the poor and powerless, as they cannot even report the offenses committed against, as they cannot afford the services of lawyers to represent them in court.

Inequality of conditions is about the distribution of income, materials goods, and wealth in unequal manner among the people. Housing is one of examples of inequality of conditions where some people are living in expensive mansions while others are living in the homeless housing projects. The powerful and wealthy people in the multi-million mansions as they can afford through their control of the rights and resources while the powerless and poor are considered homeless that they live in housing projects. Another example of inequality of conditions is experienced in the whole community where certain group of people running lucrative businesses and working in the government that they can afford to provide happy, secure, and safe conditions for their families and dependants. Another group of people comprising of the poor, unstable, and prone to violent experiences people that they cannot afford their basic needs.

The Forms of Capital by Pierre Bourdieu explains more about social inequality through cultural capital concept. Pierre shared certain concepts with Karl Max in relation to explanation of social inequality. According to Pierre, capital is one of the formations of social life, which determines the position of an individual in the social order. Both Pierre Max agreed that the capital an individual has determines the position he/she occupies in the social life. For example, the people with more capital are the influential in the society as compared to the poor without or have less capital. In most cases, the poor people are not consulted when making important decisions in society as they are charged based on their resources. It is the main reason that the whites in the US are occupying influential positions as compared with the non-whites. Pierre extended the explanation about of capital regarding economic to include the symbolic realm of culture.

Pierre’s cultural capital concept explained about the privileges, symbolic elements, and favors one acquires when he/she occupies a certain position or being part of a social class. For example, the powerful and wealthy people in society might acquire certain symbolic elements like credentials, clothing, posture, tastes, material belongings, posture, and mannerism, as they occupy influential social class. The wealthy and powerful people acquire such symbolic elements as they access the adequate resources and rights as compared with the poor and powerless people in the society. When one shares certain cultural capitals with others, a group position or a collective identity is developed, which will be used in the process of their expression. Such group of people can be associated with luxurious items, activities, and even businesses in the society. The same this applies to the person associated with the people in the poor social class. The group developed will be associated with less privileged situations like poverty, low income, lack of employment, and lack of education. According to Pierre, cultural capital is the major source of social inequality in the society, as certain forms of cultural capital are valued more than others, which will support or hinder social mobility of an individual based on the wealth or income. Pierre explained three forms of cultural capital; institutionalized, embodies, and objectified. Institutionalized form of cultural capital is about the qualifications and credentials one has like titles, and degrees, which symbolizes cultural authority and competence. Embodied cultural capital refers to the dialect or accent of an individual while objectified cultural capital is the record collection or luxurious items.

Inconspicuous Consumption and the New Elites by Curried-Hacklett explained about the difference between classes of life experienced in the society. The people in the society are categorized into low and high classes of life. The high classes of life comprise of the powerful and wealthy people without any challenges in access rights and resources. Such groups of people are well-educated, has high income, occupies highly paying employment opportunities, and holds powerful leadership positions in leadership and even in the workplace. The low class people comprise of poor who cannot afford their basic needs like food, housing, clothing, and healthcare services. The difference between the low and high classes of life explains the issue of social inequality as expressed by Karl Max in the conflict theory. The people in the low classes of life will continue suffering due to suppressions from the wealthy and powerful who are struggling to maintain their position in the society. The gap between the low and high classes of life cannot be addressed as the two different groups of people one group of struggling to afford basic needs, while the other one wants to maintain the powerful position propagate them.

Social inequality is a creation of human society and not a natural existence as claimed by certain groups of people. Social inequality exists due to the struggle to enjoy power and dominance in society. It explains the difference between powerful and wealthy from the powerless and poor when accessing rights and resources in the society. The powerful and wealthy people wants to continue enjoying the privileges related to their status, which can only be achieved by ensuring that discrimination is executed through ethnicity, race, gender, color, and class. Through social inequality, power and wealthy will continue enjoying high income, quality education, employment opportunities, healthcare services, and other privileges. The powerful and wealth are not willing to share or help the poor and powerless, as they will lose such privileges. The poor and powerless people cannot compete with the wealthy and powerful people due to their status. The only option for them is to maintain their status through continuous struggle to sustain their lives. Social inequality cannot be eliminated as the powerful and wealthy will commit any available resource to ensure they remain influential with the cultural capital as explained by Pierre.