Pros And Cons Of Social Inequality

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“If the rights and perquisites of different positions in a society must be unequal, then the society must be stratified, because that is precisely what stratification means” (pg. 243 Davis and Moore). The harsh reality that now twenty-five percent of the nations income and forty percent of the nations wealth is solely occupied by 1% of the population truly demonstrates stratification our society. Wealth is the total value of all assets and income is received on a regular basis. The fact that almost half of the nations wealth is occupied by only one percent of the population is mind-bogging. One may be wondering how such trends occur and according to Davis and Moore this is a result of social stratification. Social stratification “refers to …show more content…

In other words, he believes that only to the extent necessary for people to do their jobs can resources be distributed unequally. In contrast, Davis and Moore claim that the positions that are functionally more important should receive greater rewards. The jobs that reap the greatest rewards are few and the majority of individuals do not receive rewards as great as the top percentile. This system perpetuates inequality. Tumin states “social inequality is thus an unconsciously evolved device by which societies insure that the most important positions are conscientiously filled by the most qualified persons”. The social inequality exists because the people in the top percentile determine what positions are functionally more important. Davis and Moore makes no mention on who decides what positions are more important than others. This is problematic because the jobs that are most important get the highest rewards and if the people in the top 1% determine what s most important this system of inequality will persist because they will claim that the jobs/ positions they hold are most important so that they can receive the largest reward. Tumin would claim these phenomena is exactly what is occurring in our society that is why the top 1% controls 40 % of the nations wealth and is responsible for 25% of the nations income. Tumin

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