Social stratification and mobility in the United States
The US is divided into three major social strata namely the upper, middle and lower class. The social mobility refers to the movement from one class to the other. In the recent past, the upward mobility in the US has slowed down significantly and almost all Americans agree that this is a bad thing to the society and the economy. There is great inequality in the US and the gap keeps increasing with slowed mobility with vast wealth accruing to the tinny elite (The Economist, 2014).
The global level of social stratification comes in two major parts; the developed and the undeveloped. These two are often referred to as the first world for the developed and third world for the undeveloped. However there is a new set of nations that have come to be, these are not yet first world in their status but they are not third world as well, they are referred to as the second world or the newly developed nations.
There are various theoretical perspectives to social stratification. One of the approaches is the status approach which uses single nations as its unit of analysis and in most cases what is considered is the income per capita. The other theory uses the integration approach which in contrast to the status approach takes the world as a system with its division of labor as the unit of theoretical analysis. The third approach is the state centric approach which combines the two branches of the statist and the liberal (Trezzini B & Bornschier V., 1997).
The social stratification has a direct influence on my life in many aspects ranging from the educational to the health and even the economic areas. For instance, the social strata I belong to will dictate the availability of some socials services and the level of education and health care that I can have access to. If I belong to the lower social stratum, or live in a third world nation, then the health care services that may be essential for good living can be a thing of the past.
References
The Economist, (2014). Mobility Measured. Retrieved may 20, 2018 from https://www.economist.com/united-states/2014/02/01/mobility-measured
Trezzini B & Bornschier V., (1997). Social Stratification and Mobility in the World System:
Different Approaches and Recent Research. Retrieved may 20, 2018 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249738373_Social_Stratification_and_Mobility_in_the_World_System_Different_Approaches_and_Recent_Research
