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Summary sociology inequalties
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in depth sociology notes on inequalities
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Class and inequalityHow can we define class?
* By occupation, marx and hope-goldthorpe
* By wealth
* By hobbies and culture
* By friends, savages great british class survey
Marx
* 2 classes, bourgeoisie and proletariat
* But this is now too simplistic and a more complex look at class is needed. Means
of production, bour own it and prole work in it. MOP, owning a business, factory
etc
* Many of the earlier class distinctions were based mainly on occupation, manual,
non manual, managerial, professional etc
Hope-goldthorpe classification of class 1980
* 3 groups divided into 7 sub categories
* Higher professionals and lower professionals
* Routine non manual, cleric. Small proprietors and self employed lower grade
technicians, supervisors
* Skilled manual workers, semi skilled and unskilled
* Social Class - Mr Cartwright Flashcards | Chegg.com * Charles murray later added
the underclass to this. A lass below the working class, so the poorest members of
society. Unemployed, lone parents, chronically sick and disabled
* Came to the uk in 1989
* Largely dependant on benefits Figure 6 from The national statistics socio-
economic classification: Unifying official and sociological approaches to the
conceptualisation and measurement of social class in the United Kingdom : Enjeux
et usages des catégories socioprofessionnelles
* Some jobs pay more but are lower in the class scale such as bricklayer and
plumbers
* Women. How do we judge women? Judge them on their husbands role
* Modern society, jobs don't fit so neatly such as call centre work
Social class and life chances
* Being healthy
* Living a long life
* Having a good education
* Being able to own your own home in a good area
* Having a rewarding job and not being unemployed
* Having access to open spaces and leisure activities
* Having paid holidays and the ability to enjoy cultural experiences
* Hill argues that origins do not fully determine who you become but they have a
stronger impact
* Social mobility to move up and improve, but now sm is at its worst. The gap is
larger. The cost of living has damaged life chances
Social class and income
* Income is hard to measure
* Various government bodies measure income ASHE (annual survey of hours and
earnings) takes a 1% sample from hmrc
* Self report is socially sensitive because people don't like to say
* People may often lie in official surveys about income as they dont want to pay
, too much tax . To friends and family they over exaggerate
* Britain is one of the most unequal countries in Europe for income
distribution. Income distribution is measured by the gini coefficient from 0 - 1 0
is perfect equality. From 1961 to 2011 it has risen from 0.25 to 0.35 as inequality
has increased.inequalities increased in the 80s when tax cuts were given to the
rich and benefits cut for the poor.
* There is a direct relation between tax and benefits. Whilst the rich pay more
tax the poorest 20% pays 37%of their income on tax whilst for the rich it is 35%
* This is because the rich pay more direct tax, income tax. But the poor pay
more indirect tax such as VAT on food, clothes, tobacco and alcohol. A bottle of
wine costs the same for a poor person as it does for the rich but it is a larger
percent of their income
* Many wealthy people earn their income from bonuses and not just salary. In the
last 10 years. Bonuses has increased by 50%
* It could be argued that this gap in wealth encourages and motivates the poor
* Marxists and weberian argue that the rich are able to name their own wages.
Social class and wealth
* Income is flow and wealth is stock
* Land is 81% of all wealth in the uk (Cowell)
* There are also items like antiques, jewellery, stocks, shares, bank accounts
and pensions
* The times rich list found that the top 200 families has over £225 billion in
assets which is over £1 billion each
* But this is very difficult to measure. Often wealth is concealed so not to pay
tax on it and often assets are held abroad. Often wealth in stocks and shares is
held by a fund and so is not technically held by the individual so it is hard to
measure the percentage of fund that they hold
* But essentially 50% of the uk population hold 90% of the wealth
* Wealth is important as without it a person may need to rely on debt, which has
a heavy cost. Wealth also protects you from unemployment and housing issues
* The wealthy also have more political access, they can use their wealth to gain
political power
* But often wealth does not equate to good life chances. Many elderly people
have wealth in terms of housing, but they cannot access it and so may still live a
relatively poor life. A young person with a high incomes may struggle to buy a home
as the deposit is so high, rollingson and mullineux
* Generally the 55-64 age group have the most wealth. But even here there is
inequality, the poorest 10% have less than 28k and the top 10 have on average £1.3
million
* A great deal of wealth is also inherited and not earned via the entrepreneur
route, atkinson
Social class and work
* More skilled workers tend to earn higher salaries. If you have a skill you can
command higher wages
* For marxists those who work to run businesses earn more as they are key to
ensuring the ruling class make money
* Salary isn't the only inequality in work:
* Status, some people wear a different uniform or no uniform, have different
canteens and break rooms
* Senior staff have more power and autonomy, they can set their own working
hours and make decisions about their work. They may be less supervised
* They may have the opportunity for more advancement and progression
* They may also have more job satisfaction and job security
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