How Does Class Stratification Affect How Individuls Think?

Kelly (2014) explained part of social psychology’s focus is “to understand social factors that influence how individuals think, how they act, and how they feel.” How does stratification affect the individuals that live in social class systems, caste systems, or slavery? According to Baumeister and Bushman (2014):
Back when social mobility began to increase, so that some aristocrats became poor while merchants became rich, the upper classes wanted to continue believing that they were inherently better than other people, even if the others had more money. The upper class could not point to obvious differences in behavior because in point of fact many aristocrats were drunken, conceited, stupid, lazy, sexually immoral, and in other respects deplorable (p. 75).
Western Civilization has been working, according to Marshall (2010) “even if only for the west.” Marshall explained that western civilizations have extended the practice of preying and exploiting of the rest of the world as the decades passed, through the united security net of the US-led NATO Empire. New money making opportunities needed to be found, more money needed to be made, more resources needed to be owned, and more power was needed. Western civilizations are running out of these resources, and this is causing the middle class to disappear. As the resources stopped providing, those living in the middle class began to live on credit. According to Marshall (2010), there is an estimated $1.5 trillion in credit card debt, predominately being carried by 115 million Americans who have monthly credit card debts. As the cost of expensive items such as vehicles, houses, medical insurance, and college education have rapidly increased; the income for the middle class has n...

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Overall, it seems social stratification is fluid and forever changing. What will the long-term implications of evolving social structures be? According to Chin, “Money is more than just currency: it shapes our evolution, or lack thereof.” I think this is a powerful sentiment regarding stratification. As economies across the globe worsen, the need for cheap labor feeds the system of slavery. Will the trade of human trafficking continue to grow to fulfill the need? Although the social structure of western culture appears to be devolving, caste systems in other cultures are absolutely evolving. As the divide between upper and lower classes widens because the middle class fall deeper into debt, and ultimately into the lower class category. Caste systems are slowly shifting into more open societies and many people are embracing these changes.