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Social Inequality in Theoretical Perspectives

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Social Inequality in Theoretical Perspectives

Social inequality and poverty are a topic that is debated all around the world. Social inequality is an umbrella term that describes the subsistence of unequal opportunities for people belonging from different social statuses or positions. The disparities that are observed in the distribution of economic assets had a great impact on not only a single person but on a whole society (Kendall, 2012). Several reasons are there due to which the social inequality in the society emerges. For instance, the occurrence of social stereotyping or discriminatory legislation is few reasons due to which social inequality exists. The existence of social inequality is not limited to the different racial groups, but it also exists among various religious groups. Due to this reason, social inequality is often linked to racial, wealth, and gender inequality.

Specifically discussing the US, it is undeniably true that despite being one of the prosperous countries in the world, social inequality still exists. Especially, income inequality in the US has increased tremendously. According to the article published by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the pay of CEO had increased up to 30 times more than an employee in 1980. The huge pay gap among employees and the CEO still exists. The article also highlighted that in 2007 the pay of CEO increased up to 360 times more than it was in 1980 (Mishel & Wolfe, 2019). This means that rich people are getting richer and richer while poor people are becoming more poor day by day. The huge pay gap results in increasing social inequality among various groups of people as it seizes social mobility, therefore increasing class differences. Moreover, differences in the pay gap are also due to gender discrimination as males are paid more as compared to females. Similarly, racial and religious factors also influence pay gaps. For instance, most of the authoritative positions are held by Whites rather than black people. In short, the issue of social inequality is still prevailing not only in the US but around the globe.

While discussing social inequality from the theoretical perspective, there are three main theoretical perspectives according to which differ in explaining the issue of social inequality. In sociology, theoretical perspectives can be defined as a set of assumptions regarding any issue. According to the functionalist perspective, every member of society works together to attain success and common good for all citizens. In sociology, inequality among a group of people is known as stratification (Kendall, 2012). The functionalists consider that stratification is good for the growth in society. They believe that authoritative positions or in other words, good jobs with high pay scale belong to those who are talented and hardworking. Also, the reason that poor people are poor is that they are not very talented and do not work hard to attain success and qualify for the best positions. The functionalist theory was proposed by Davis and Moore (Grimes, 1988). They believe that society can only progress if talented people are given difficult jobs. Also, according to them, if all the people are paid the same, the concept of hard work will vanish, and people will only do the easy jobs that will damage the balance of a society. The rewards are given to the people who work hard to serve as a motivation for other people, and they also work hard to attain rewards. So if every member of society is paid equally, then no one will be able to utilize his or her talent. However, this theory neglected the concept of structural inequality as factors like racial and gender discrimination was not considered. Additionally, the lack of job opportunities and school funding were also neglected.

In contrast, the conflict perspective regarding social inequality is way different than the functionalist perspective. From a conflict perspective, a conflict is a normal feature that is necessary for the fair distribution of power. The equal distribution of power will, in turn, bring a social change that can benefit society. In the context of social inequality, conflict perspective views stratification as a threat to society. According to the conflict perspective, stratification can change dysfunctions society and therefore hinders the chances of social progress. For instance, a conflict theorist believes that it is wrong that a baseball player is paid more than a public school teacher who barely earns money to attain the basic necessities of life. Conflict theory is based on the work of Karl Marx. According to him, due to the industrial revolution, people are divided n into two groups, that is they either own the factories, or they work in them. This unfair distribution resulted in social inequality as upper-class people become richer while working-class earn less money and therefore are struggling to survive. Thus, people in society are divided based on wealth and power. Additionally, the government also promotes capitalism, and therefore, they provide subsidies and tax breaks to support the owners of the industries (Georg, 2004). According to the government, providing incentives to the industrialist will facilitate in increasing the growth rate of the economy. However, in reality, these subsidies make rich people richer, and poor people have to suffer a lot. Although, many functionalists deny the conflict perspective as they think that conflict theorists neglect the abilities and talent of the people. They also argue that rich people do not always think about their self-interest; for instance, it is very well known that Bill Gates gave half of his wealth to facilitate poor people, so conflict perspective regarding stratification is wrong.

Thus, it is undeniably true that there does exist a structural social inequality based on religion, people, and gender due to which there is an imbalance in the society that is the ultimate reason for poverty.

References

Georg, W. (2004). Cultural capital and social inequality in the life course. European Sociological Review, 20(4), 333-344.

Grimes, M. D. (1988). The functionalist perspective on social inequality: Some neglected theoretical and conceptual roots. Sociological Inquiry, 58(2), 182-193.

Kendall, D. (2012). Sociology in our times. Cengage Learning.

Mishel, L., & Wolfe, J. (2019). CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978: Typical worker compensation has risen only 12% during that time. Retrieved 31 October 2019, from https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/