MCAT Khan Notes Foundation Social Inequality

Social Inequality Social Inequality: the uneven wealth distribution in the US Top 20% has 72% of wealth, and bottom 20% has 3% of wealth ● Upper, middle, and lower class→ move up the ladder, more access to education, healthcare, and services ● Groups very affected are racial/ethnic minorities or those in poverty (lower edu opportunities, red access to healthcare, and lower wages) ○ Gender (fem) also has unequal in gender pay gap and glass ceiling effect (less rep in high leadership positions) ● Ppl may feel socially excluded ○ Segregated neighborhoods ○ Politically disempowered *may lead to civil unrest→ criminal acts* Solutions: gov allow financial/social support (ex. Food stamps) ● identify/remove barriers and access to edu + health ● Develop ways of allowing integration to society Upward and downward mobility, meritocracy Lower class: laborious work, low pay jobs Middle class: better pay, lots of professionals Upper class: very wealthy businessmen, heads of industries, wealthy families Person can move horizontally or vertically ● Horizontal Movement: in same class or level; ex. Switching companies for same job ● Vertical Movement: up or down movement; ex. Promotion or demotion Caste system: very little social mobility; entire life based on background and what class born into regardless of merit ● Social structures do not change so very stable society ○ Ex. Hindu caste system Class system: lower, middle, upper class; a step away from caste; takes both background and merit into account ● Less social stability because ppl can better themselves via edu Meritocracy: highly idealized and purely based on ability and achievement ● extreme social mobility because people constantly move Intergenerational and intragenerational mobility social mobility Intergenerational: social mobility up or down that occurs over generations Intragenerational: social mobility up or down of individual in own lifetime Absolute and relative poverty Is poverty threatening survival or is it excluding them from society Resources: shelter, food, water, sanitation Lvl of income used ot measure the level of poverty Absolute poverty: $1-2 a day and the standard is applicable to all countries/locations But dif living costs for dif areas so there should be some variability absolute poverty does not encompass ● Absolute poverty line can rise as countries become more developed and richer society decor absolute poverty ● Relative poverty: less than certain % of median income ( higher than absolute poverty income, but linked to medial income level of country) ○ Relative poverty moves with median develop while absolute poverty stays same ○ Relative pov is not based on inability to survive and focuses on exclusion from society like abs pov ● Absolute poverty focuses on survival and is set rate Social Reproduction Large gap between poor and rich families seems to replicate itself between generation Social reproduction we are reproducing social inequalities across generations *wealthier families have lots of financial capital (money to invest) ● Social Capital: networks, connections→ more opportunities ● Cultural Capital: trips abroad, finer appreciation for art, social nuances for middle/upper classes Poorer people don’t have the same types of privilege ● Educational system: thought to be an equalizer, but educational system tends to prioritize culture and social capital of rich over the poor (ex. Fine arts more important ins school than graffiti) ○ May reinforce social reproduction Social Exclusion (segretation and social isolation) Great to be in circle of socially accepted but whe pushed out, individuals are prevented from participating in society in many ways ● May have:Red rights, Access to legal protection/rights, red access to resources, red opportunities ● Dif processes can drag people away from core parts of society ○ Poverty -derails ppl, limits ppl from ○ Ill health- mentally/physically ill people dragged away form ○ Discrimination- race, gender, citizen status, etc ○ Lack of education, jobs, housing ● Many of these processes can combine, and ppl who are pulled from core of society may either have ill health or partake in crime Segregation separating out groups of people and giving them access to separate set of resources w/in same society ● Segregated people often have poor services(often worse resources) ○ Enforced by:Laws, public institutes, informal processes, < hidden discrimination= ● Social isolation: community voluntarily isolates self from society based on own cultural/religious values (ex. Amish) Environmental Justice Where we live in society plays huige role in envir risks and benefits ● Wealthier have higher benefits that those more poor, high poverty gets more envir burden (waste facilities, manufacturing factories, energy plants, transport emissions) ○ Wealthier tends to be politically/economically more powerful ○ High poverty→Lots of health risks from polutants, few alternatives, not aware of risks, other passing issues ■ Lack of access to affordable groceries, gyms, and high asthma/obesity is linked to high poverty Environmental Justice fair distr of benefits and burdens between wealthy and poor (not happening currently) Residential segregation Groups of people separate out into dif neiughborhoods→Often by race or income ● Where we live affects out life chances (education, healthcare, education, etc) Concentration a form of segregation means clustering of dif groups ● dif distr of groups and clustered together) Centralization segregation + clustering in a central area We measure by index of disimilarity: 0(total segregation)-100 (perfect distr) Why is this important? Communities that are segregated are politically weak and don’t have the votes or influence to keep own schools, est, etc ● Political isolation ● Linguistic isolation -harder to blend in with other pts of society ● Lower access to quality education/health ● Spacial mismatch → difference between where people live and where actual opportunities are (harder to access jobs when they’re all so far away) Global Inequality Access to resources are very different across the world so life expectancy is very different Wealth Champagne glass represents distr of wealth globally: ● Richest has 82.7% income ● has less 16% income ● Poorest has 1.4% income Health Maternal mortality rate-marker for healthcare systems Upside down champagne glass In Europe 10/100k deaths N America 23/1000k S. America 75/100k SE Asia 170/100k Central+West Africa 700+/100k (huge incr here)