Book Review: Social and Economic Issues

Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Date Book Review: Social and Economic Issues “Social Inequality” Patterns and Processes Social Classes The author, Martin Marger, outlines factors that have contributed to social inequality. The factors can be grouped into either social or economic. From this book, Martin discusses how society has been divided for many centuries, and this has contributed to the rise of the social classes that bring about the inequality in the distribution of resources. The rise in the social classes which separates the Americans into ‘haves’ and the ‘haves- not’ has been the primary concern for decades now. The poor society is alienated and deprived of accessing national resources. This has led to the ghettoization of one group of people who cannot access the national society facilities such as education. The social separation leads to lack of mentorship of the poor people's children, which often results in the poverty cycle. Therefore, this means that they do not value education or the drop from the school which results in hopelessness. Income and wealth inequality In determining the level of inequality, income mobility is an important factor according to Marger. In this subtopic, Merger discusses the rise of the white collar jobs, the blue color jobs and even those that do not have jobs at all. The period of industrialization marked the beginning of the significant classes of human beings. There are those people who were employed in industries as manual labourers, the machine operators and the workers who were in charge of supervisory duties. All these categories evolved into distinct social classes where some could afford some items for their families while others could not. Worse of all are those who were not employed and therefore could not support or educate their children. These gaps have continued to widen up to today, and it is estimated that the present society has a more extensive social gap than it used to be three or four decades ago. Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Race and gender are essential in social stratification. The principal racial or ethnic stratification marks the history of the United States of America. The evidence can be seen from the history of the murder of the Native Americans or even the slavery of the black in society. Despite fighting for the civil rights in the 1960s, the racial and the ethnic disparities when it comes to resources exists even today. The recent annual reports show that there are vast differences between the incomes and the wealth possessed by the advantaged group which the whites and the disadvantaged group which the black African Americans. The ratio of the wealth of the white people to that of the black people's wealth has risen from 1:10 to around 1:20. There also exists the gender stratification where women initially used to work in households because they were considered as a weak gender. Marger also discusses the gender stratification up to date. Female workers are up to date underrepresented in the industrial work and the white collar job. Health Outcomes of Social Inequality The social inequality results in poverty among the disadvantaged group. Socially aliena...