Social Inequality
Social inequalityis the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. Although the United States differs from most European nations that have a titled nobility, the U.S. is still highly stratified. Social inequality has several important dimensions.Incomeis the earnings from work or investments, whilewealthis the total value of money and other assets minus debts. Other important dimensions include power, occupational prestige, schooling, ancestry, and race and ethnicity.
There is little question that many people in the U.S. are better off than most other people in the world. That being said, poverty also impacts millions of people in the U.S. Why do such social inequalities exist? Let's examine the two prevailing explanations of poverty: blaming the poor and blaming society.
One approach to explain poverty is toblame the poor- that the poor are responsible for their own poverty. There is some evidence to support this theory, because the main reason people are poor is the lack of employment. According to this view, society has plenty of opportunities for people to realize the American dream, and people are poor because they lack the motivation, skills, or schooling to find work.
The majorexamplesofsocial inequalityinclude income gap, genderinequality, health care, andsocialclass. In health care, some individuals receive better and more professional care compared to others. ... In most societies, an individual'ssocialstatus is a combination of ascribed and achieved factors.
Income Inequality. Income inequality is the extent to which income is distributed unevenly in a group of people. Pay Inequality. A person's pay is different to their income. ... Wealth Inequality. ... Gini Coefficient. ... Ratio Measures. ... Palma Ratio.
