Money, power, and prestige.

Money talks! Money brings power, and with power comes prestige. This week we began to look at social stratification and class systems. We focused mainly on the Caste System, Open systems, and Meritocracies. Everyone remembers the film Mean Girls. In this film, the new girl, Kady, starts off as disliked by the majority of the student body. In order to gain popularity she begins following a group of popular girls called the “Plastics”. This may seem like it has nothing to do with social stratification, but there is a striking resemblance. In this instance the different levels of popularity or lack there of, can be compared to the different social classes. To move up a level in popularity one must gain more appeal and admiration amongst their peers. In class systems, one must usually gain more money and prestige in order to move up a level. However, in most cultures it is either difficult or impossible to move up in the class system.

The United States is considered the land of dreams. In the United States one’s class is greatly based on their income. We believe that we’re meritocracy; however, the harsh reality is that it is extremely difficult to move up the social ladder in the United States. In the several graphs we saw in class we saw how the income disparity is growing in the U.S. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult to deviate from the social class one’s parents may have belonged to.  As we saw in the case of the Appalachian people, few of the children were able to finish high school or go to college because their parents hadn’t either.

 On the other hand, there’s the Caste System; a closed system in which people are born into their social class and remain there until they die. That may sound like a good thing at first, but what about those in the lowest caste: the “untouchables”? People can’t get a job or marry to get out of their caste. It’s permanent. The article for this week was on Human Trafficking and the sex-slave trade. This is another example of a closed system. It is obvious that countries like the United States are trying to take steps to end this, but the bigger issue, as the author points out, is the issue with socioeconomic status. Most of the countries where human trafficking takes place are countries with issues of extreme poverty. As long as poverty persists, there are human traffickers to take advantage. Why? People are desperate to move up a social class and selling their niece into slavery is the fastest way to get money, and well, money talks! Money brings power, and with power comes prestige.

Social stratification has always been a part of every civilization. This image shows social stratification as early as the Mayan empire, with the king on top and farmers on the bottom: