Social Class System in the U.S. Classism' Term Paper

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SOCIAL CLASS SYSTEM IN THE U.S.

Classism' refers to distribution of national wealth is such a manner that it benefits the highest social class, the elites, and leads to the creation of social hierarchy. "Classism is made up of falsehoods about the frugality and seriousness of the upper class and the profligacy and frivolity of the lower" (Dugger, 1998). While in the Britain and other imperial countries, social classes took birth because of the presence of monarchy and aristocracy, in America it came with capitalism. United States, the greatest champion of democracy, developed the principle of individualism to remove the insidiousness associated with classism. However its efforts in this connection resulted in the development of capitalism and with industrialism and capitalism came the problem of wealth distribution, which eventually paved way for classism as the elite always got the biggest share.

Classism or social class system in the United States is thus inextricably connected with wealth distribution under capitalist economy. Joseph S. Roucek (1948) "Social-class systems are phenomena peculiar to capitalism...By a social class system we mean some variant of that social-status order which followed the breakdown and atomization of the European estate system. "Social class" should not be confused with "political class," an entirely different concept." This system, though it favors the common man, doesn't produce complete social equality and therefore those who come to live in the United States need to be aware of the social classes that exist here. Some theorists na vely suppose that "Today, as a sociological concept, class is dead" (Nisbet 1993: 91), without realizing that class system is not dead it has just been buried under different kinds of labels.

Even with all the hype about America being a land of opportunities, disadvantaged groups know that rising to higher social status in the U.S. is not as easy a task as it is made out to be because several social and political impediments exist such as racial prejudice, gender discrimination, and cultural and educational differences. Various political and social theorists had detected these impediments and resulting social division in early 20th century.

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Social class system has remained much the same since it was first discussed by Karl Marx and Engels at the turn of the century. However it is slightly different in America because of it being a multicultural society. Minorities and immigrants group encounter social inequality more harshly in the United States than anywhere else in the world.

Jurgen Ruesch (1946) conducted a thorough study of social class system in the United States and its impact on the psychological health of the working classes. He came to realize that lives of those falling in lower social status could be destroyed without adequate knowledge of social hierarchy in the United States. We have thus seen many immigrants suffering from sever disillusionment when they fail to realize the American Dream. Warner et al. (1949) studied the social class system in America and found that the reason behind this disillusionment was the inability to understand how social class system works in the U.S. He wrote, "...we have little scientific knowledge about the powerful presence of social status and how it works for good and evil in the fives of all of us. Yet to live successfully and adaptively in America, every one of us must adjust his life to each of these contradictions, not just one of them, and we must make the most of each. Our knowledge of the democratic aspects of America is learned directly as part of our social heritage, but our understanding of the principle of social status tends to be implicit and to be learned obliquely and through hard and sometimes bitter experience." (page 5)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels maintained that class struggle here was a conflict between "freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, oppressor and oppressed, bourgeoisie and proletariat." However their theories appeared vague and did not offer much on social class phenomenon in America. Class system everywhere originates from the some kind of inequality, we must bear in mind that this inequality is deliberately maintained in America through various different means.….....

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