Factors of Social Class

Explain the significance of social structure and its components.

The signify significance of social structure is the traditional methods of a group. It is where human beings in society survive and collaborate as an entity. It is normally relationships between educators and students, parents and adolescents, Rulers and subjects and women and men. The sociological understanding of social structure is that it sways our performance as a culture when interacting with others. We often link social structure with social change, for it leads to change within a social structure and within our cultures. A show that portrays social structure accurately and other conceptions of sociology and philosophy is a show called “The Good Place.” On the Meso scale social structure is the system of social networks between organizations and individuals while, on a macro scale social structure is considered as relations between larger groups such as religion, government, and recession. Social structure fills people’s time in our lives for we connect with others to get by in our existence. There are other aspects of social structure such as inequality. We have sexism in the United States still. For it influences how much more pay you start at a position. We still have discrimination, racism, and criticizing others social class status. We may be all joined through social structure but our social structure is imperfect for we not perfect human beings.

What is social class and how do we see it manifested in everyday society?

Social Class means ‘A division of a society based on social and economic status.’ It is a group of people who occupy a position within an economic system. Some positions in social class are Income, Race, Education, Power, Occupation, Wealth, Wealth etc. In the United States Sociologist say our social class is divided into Upper Class, Middle Class, Working Class and Lower Class. Income has to do with investments or how much money you make from a job. Education is one of the most important for it helps with income and increasing your wealth and power. Wealth plays an important part in everyday society for it decides how we live out our everyday life styles.  It determines even in other countries who has more power. Sadly some people look down on others who have lower social class rank then them. It even determines in other countries if you even end up in slavery or not. It’s a harsh fact but, social class can be a lot more ruthless in other societies. We are lucky that in the United States that our social class doesn’t end up making us belong to others. Know the saying “last hired, first fired.” That can be applied well in social class. If you are at the bottom of the totem pole for a job you are considered at your jobs social class you end up being the first to get fired. It is like that in life if a college graduate and a high school dropout are both working at the same part-time job. With their rank of social class it would be determined the high school dropout would be the first most of the time to lose their job. It might not be fair but it is how social class works in our society if they can’t afford to keep both workers due to a budget cut. That is why so many people push so hard to graduate high school and college so they have a better chance at keeping a job or getting a job when a decision has to be made because of the rankings of social class. It is why resumes are so important so jobs can easily decide your social class and ranking so they can make that quick choice who is qualified more.

 What are the symbols of social class? Is there a relationship between social class and culture? Give examples.

Some symbols of social class are showing how much wealth you have over another person or how much better you are than them by trying to outdo them. You would flaunt your new iPhone 15 plus to the person who still has an iPhone 10. Then you can say to someone “Have you ever been to this country yet?” “I have, the view of traveling all over is worth the price!” Or they mention how big their beach house is in Cape May and how it has the perfect view, and they would let you stay the week. They might casually bring up how your Uggs remind them of their imported special brand limited edition boots at home for they don’t believe in killing animals to create boots and spending the extra money is worth it to save their fuzzy lives. Then you feel bad because it’s what you could afford. Or they ask you if you tried that expensive fifteen dollar organic egg breakfast in cape may because it’s “Healthy and nice.” (True story I love my best friend and he doesn’t do it on purpose) There is a relationship between social class and culture for our social class influences our personalities and the way we live our lives. Our social class influences our culture by what schools we go to growing up, what neighborhoods we played in, what friends we made and even what clothes we were wearing. I wasn’t wearing the same clothes as a princess growing up. Our social class influences our culture classes rely more on others than some. It even affects our cultures emotions. Lower class has more anxiety in their culture than most for they are worrying a lot more. While upper class tends to have more happiness in their social class culture. Every social class culture has its good and it’s bad.  

Are there ‘unwritten’ rules of social class in society? What are those?

Unwritten rules in our society are taught to us growing up in school. We are taught the rules to obey authority at an early age. We are taught to use good manners. We were taught the unwritten rule that authority like teachers, principals, police officers, bosses etc we have to listen to them like we would with our actual parent. Having them teach us the unwritten rules of society at an early age helped us get by with everyone else. Teachers help their students prepare for situations similar to the situations their parents are placed in so they can get used to their environment better. We are also taught the unwritten rule that we are not just individuals just focused on ourselves. That we also representatives of our families and our schools, work force etc. Our education system does more than just teaching us basic english, math etc. Students enter school from many different type of cultures, so the school takes it upon themselves to make sure everyone learns the unwritten rules of our society and what can and not be tolerated. This is helpful because schools one country versus another is very different so when my mom came to America she needed that unwritten help in our school system to point her in the right direction just incase she stood out in any way by being a bit different from the children in her classes. Obeying authority is something she already knew and she was taught at a young age that she represented her family so she always had to try her best but she didn’t know how to talk to others well for she was shy for she didn’t know the surrounding environment the best. It took her some time but, her school helped her a lot prepare for situations. After her school taught her the unwritten rules she was happy here and got her citizenship. So im grateful for the unwritten rules teachers teach us at a young age because my grandmother would have zero idea how to transition countries well to teach my mother the differences.

 How did you learn about social class, and what is the impact of social class on our society?

I learned about social class back in high school in my sociology class. It was my senior year, and my teacher taught us the importance of social class which later helped in my world cultures class. He taught us we divide our society into Upper Class, Middle Class, Working Class and Lower Class. He showed us examples of what class everyone would fall into in our society. Like for example Oprah and Trump are considered upper class because of the high income they have. Middle class is enough money to live comfortably but not enough to waste on luxuries. People who are considered middle class are Managers, Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers and Business people. Working class are people in our society that own little property, who have low social status and do jobs that involve physical labor and skill rather than intellectual skill. They get paid by the hour. Then you have Lower class they have the lowest social rank, the lowest income lack of skills or education. They can get help from the state or become unemployed. My parents are considered Middle class and Lower class. My father has his company while my mom lost her job due to the fact my grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She starts her new job soon working for the county in two weeks so she will be it will consider her working class at this point. Most people in my town are considered working class few are considered middle class because it is a shore town here for I live in Cape May. I will be considered middle class after I graduate and get a job for I am getting a job as a psychologist.

It is safe to say social class isn’t perfect in our society, but It defines us as people.

Works Cited

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