This paper examines the key determinants of social class in the United States, arguing that social stratification is best understood through the degree to which individuals are provided or deprived of fundamental social goods. Drawing on Karl Marx's theory of class conflict as a conceptual backdrop, the paper analyzes five core dimensions — family stability, educational attainment, religious affiliation, political participation, and access to physical and mental health services — to demonstrate how each reinforces class boundaries. The paper contends that privilege and deprivation across these domains collectively reproduce inequality, and calls for viewing social class not as a fixed justification for oppression but as an indicator of areas where society must improve.
The paper demonstrates thematic parallelism as an organizational technique: each determinant (family, education, religion, politics, health) is analyzed through the same lens — how class shapes access — allowing the reader to compare across domains while following a single coherent thesis. This approach is particularly effective in social science essays where breadth of evidence must support one central claim.
The paper opens with a historical and theoretical introduction grounding social class in Marxist theory. It then moves through five thematic body sections, each devoted to one determinant of social class. The conclusion synthesizes the discussion and delivers a normative call for reform. The structure is straightforward and well-suited to undergraduate social science writing, making the argument easy to follow while covering substantial analytical ground.
The development of human society from a hunter-gatherer system to an agricultural one led to the emergence of inequality among individuals. This is manifested through the creation of private property that an agricultural society entails, as it produces resources considered valuable to people. As a particular group accumulates more resources and private property than others, there also emerges a group for whom resources are scarce and who have no private property to claim.
More popularly introduced as a concept in Karl Marx's theory of class conflict in the capitalist system, social class has determined the course of human history as people sought to improve their lives and eradicate the perpetuation of oppression against those who belong to the lower classes by the elite. Social stratification is ultimately determined by a variety of factors that prevail in society. These determinants make up the basic demographics of society, which include, among others, family life, education, religion, politics, and physical and mental health.
This paper argues that deprivation of the basic needs of people across each of these determinants illustrates the operation of social stratification, dividing society between those who are privileged and those who are underprivileged. Social class is demonstrated here as the level of deprivation or provision of basic services that society offers individuals — such as basic health services, nurturing of family relationships, attainment of good education, and freedom to participate in a religion and political ideology of their choice. These indicators reveal how social class is reflected when society provides or deprives an individual of these basic needs: provision signals membership in the higher social class, while deprivation marks belonging to the lower class.
The maintenance of strong family relationships is vital to the integration of the individual into his or her society. More often than not, wealth has to do with the survival of a family unit: those who are able to provide for their family's everyday needs tend to be more satisfied than those who barely have enough resources to keep their family members going from day to day. The tension that emerges among family members as a result of poverty leads to the weakening of family ties. Parents may separate and seek divorce as a way of escaping this tension, while children may run away from home to avoid family problems. As a result of poverty, the family disintegrates — an unfortunate reality reflected in most families who belong to the lower social class. Because people do not have a stable source of income to rely on, family members spend little time together, which results in a lack of cohesion and unity.
Another illustration of how social class influences an individual's life chances is through education. Society clearly offers better chances and opportunities for financial security to individuals who have achieved higher education than to those who were only able to attend high school, or in some cases, grade school only. It is equally apparent that most people who have attained higher levels of education are those with the money to afford better formal schooling — people who belong to the higher or elite class, and sometimes those in the middle class.
It is not surprising, then, that members of the lower class enter the workforce at a young age and continue to do so into adulthood. There is little opportunity for them to obtain a college degree, either because they cannot afford it, do not have the time, or both. What is evident is that the circumstances of lower-class members make it nearly impossible for them to compete against the higher class, since the latter has the money, time, and opportunity to maintain the lifestyle of attending formal schooling at private and well-regarded universities in the United States.
The enumeration, discussion, and analysis of the determinants affected and influenced by social class bring to light the issue of how society's treatment of certain people changes when they are labeled as belonging to a particular class. The existence of social classes should be viewed as an avenue for further improvement of the dysfunctions within society, and must not be taken as an excuse to justify or perpetuate oppression against underprivileged individuals by those who are rich and powerful enough to control society's institutions and manipulate its primary structures.
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