Equality

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In our society there is a concept referred to as the "American Dream." It is the idea that all people have a chance to earn a large amount of wealth and live comfortable lives. According to common wisdom everyone has an equal chance to succeed in our society. However according to the research of Max Weber, Societies tend to stratify into classes; the most powerful of which is also the smallest. (Henslin 2009 p176) Social mobility is very limited and the rich tend to stay rich and the poor tend to stay poor. "In large, industrialized societies, there are a very few people at the top of the stratification system,and a large majority of people who don’t get the opportunity to share in the incredible wealth that they hold." (Culwell, lecture week 5)We create myths to keep those who are less fortunate from rising up in rebellion and those who are at the top have numerous mechanisms to keep those who are moving upward from gaining too much wealth. The social stratification in the U.S. is present and needs to be altered to provide a more egalitarian stratification for all citizens.

The current stratification of wealth in the United States is a not ignorable. The wealthiest one percent of people in our nation hold such a vast amount of wealth that they control three percent more than the bottom ninety percent of people. (Henslin, 2009 p199) The fact that people are working forty hour weeks and are barely making ends meet while the ultra-rich like John Castle can say, “I don't want to know how much anything cost. When you have got enough money, price doesn't make a difference,” is morally unacceptable. (Henslin 2009 p202). Currently or poverty level is 13% (Henslin 2009 p215), this means that, out of ten randomly selected citizens ...

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...200) While the nationalization of the banking industry will not directly solve the stratification of society, as the rich and poor are separated by more than property, it will help provide upward mobility for the lower classes (and downward mobility for the upper classes). If the banks are nationalized bankers will have an incentive to help the poor and it will likely become a public service job. There will be, of course, potential for the nationalization of the banking industry to have adverse effects. One such effect would be corruption within the bank and political sphere; leading to favoritism in lending or the falsification of documents to further the political goals of a corrupt group. While there is potential for the abuse of power, the nationalization of the banking industry will provide the public with a greater chance at the equalization of social groups.

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