Manifestation of social inequality. How and why social inequality arises. The number of poor citizens is increasing

12. Stratification of society

Inequality between people exists in any society. This is quite natural, given that all people have differences, and it is just as impossible to make them equal, just as it is impossible to make everyone the same externally and internally. Even with the same income, some live frugally, while others experience a constant lack of funds. Absolute equality is a dream that allows us to hope that one day a society of complete social justice will be built.

People have repeatedly made attempts to build a socially just society. Almost constantly, with varying intensity, there is a struggle between the rich and the poor. Low- and middle-income strata do not want to accept the fact that a significant part of public wealth belongs to a narrow circle of people, so they are trying to eliminate the existing injustice.

The greed of the rich, their reluctance to share funds with the rest of society is one of the reasons leading to rampant stratification. Bloody revolutions and changes in political regimes are the consequences of the indifferent attitude of the “elite” towards ordinary people, towards those who actually create all the material wealth, receiving little in return.

To date, it has not been possible to achieve social justice in society. Not a single revolution could eliminate inequality, and after any of them, stratification arose again, the spiral of the class hierarchy began to spin again, accumulating energy for the next social upheavals.

Significant inequality polarizes society, perpetuates social injustice, making some masters of life and eternal executors (slaves) of others. Inequality is accompanied by poverty, which creates fertile ground for the marginalization of the population, inciting people to join criminal communities, extremist and terrorist organizations. It is because of poverty that people often fall under bad influence and follow where they promise quick money and a good life.

It seems that the easiest way to eliminate inequality is to take and equally distribute all public wealth. But how then to evaluate the work of a slacker and a hardworking person, how to encourage the best? There is no need to look for simple solutions to this issue. Achieving equality among people is not easy, if only because there are too many reasons that cause stratification among people. The civilized approach is not to strive to completely eradicate the causes of inequality, but to prevent it from acquiring excessive, depressing forms.

The emergence of inequality in society can be explained by:

• natural differences between people;
• social and social factors;
• features of the social and state structure.

1. Natural differences between people (differences caused by a person’s natural characteristics)

All people differ in their possession of:

• mental abilities, talents;
• entrepreneurial skills;
• knowledge and experience;
• moral and value guidelines;
• physical, external data.

Mental capacity help a person in any activity. They allow you to acquire knowledge, help solve problems, find non-standard solutions, make discoveries, and develop the right strategy of behavior. All this contributes to human material well-being and the emergence of inequality.

Talented people have unequal opportunities compared to others. If their unique natural talents are in demand by society and are not wasted, then they achieve success and recognition.

Entrepreneurial skills include a set of qualities and skills that allow a person to find opportunities to make a profit when engaging in any type of activity, make reasonable consistent decisions, create and apply innovations, and take acceptable, justified risks. Entrepreneurial abilities are to some extent related to mental abilities, but still have some differences. These additionally include the ability to communicate, network, establish contacts with people and maintain relationships with them. There is also an entrepreneurial instinct that allows a person to intuitively make the right decisions.

Knowledge and experience important in any business. An experienced person has undeniable advantages over a person who is deciding on a new business for the first time. Without experience and knowledge, it is easy to make mistakes. It takes time to accumulate experience, and during this period a person often acts rashly, acting “at random.” However, it is much more rational to study the knowledge acquired by other people. This will allow you to avoid many wrong actions.

In the modern world, moral guidelines They don’t help, but, on the contrary, they hinder you from earning big money. Positive moral qualities do not allow the use of dishonest methods to get rich. Those who use such techniques usually win. However, to create an equal competitive environment, where everyone achieves success with their own skills and abilities, and not with cunning and deception, adherence to moral rules is a necessary condition.

External data play a significant role in life. It is easier for a beautiful person to achieve greater success with the opposite sex, it is easier to get married successfully, get married, and also get a job where external data matters.

Physical data allow a person to feel good and work without significant stress. Lack of physical ability can be a limitation for work in some areas. It can be difficult for a person with poor health or a disability to work, even in the easiest job.

Alas, in modern society there are often cases showing that the advantages described above do not work. Thus, situations arise in teams when, in the general mass of employees, the smartest, most talented person is “overwritten” and is not given the opportunity to open up and show himself to the fullest. Management is often afraid of smart, responsible employees, assuming that they can take their place.

2. Inequality caused by social factors:

• having unequal opportunities at birth;
• different levels of education;
• gender inequality;
• age-related inequality;
• inequality by nationality, race;
• inequality by location;
• inequality due to family composition;
• having a profitable profession or position;
• a successful combination of circumstances that contribute to a person’s enrichment.

Having unequal opportunities at birth

A child born into a family of wealthy parents has more opportunities. His parents can afford to hire tutors for individual lessons, pay for classes in clubs, sports sections, and take care of the child’s leisure time. Financial resources are a guarantee of good education and full development. Of course, all this is true if parents really care about their children and their future, and are not concerned with demonstrating their own superiority, turning the child into an obligatory attribute of the expression of personal success.

Material possibilities dictate the way of life, creating the illusion that if you just wish, everything will be fulfilled. In rich families, a very common problem is a lack of love and attention. People busy with work and satisfying personal ambitions deprive children of the most necessary thing - communication in the family. A child locked in a “golden cage” has a narrowed circle of friends and becomes a stranger to his peers from less affluent families.

In low-income families, children are sometimes deprived of the most necessary things: adequate nutrition, quality clothing, and normal living conditions. But it happens that difficulties do not always have a negative effect, sometimes they strengthen you, teach you to fight, to defend your own position. As a result, a person better adapts to living conditions and gets used to achieving everything on his own, without relying on anyone.

Dividing people into classes based on their origin is wrong. A person from a poor family, who has received an education, has shown hard work and has passed through several levels of the social hierarchy, can be much better than a person who has wealth from birth, lacking an understanding of how difficult it is to achieve a high social position.

Different levels of education

Lack of education in modern society is seen as a serious disadvantage that creates obstacles to employment. Even for unskilled positions, the employer prefers to hire a person with education, because... it increases labor discipline and cultural level. People without education are more likely to work in less profitable sectors of the economy and are almost always in lower positions, which leads to low incomes.

The continuing penetration of computer science, electronics, and technology into all spheres of life places new demands on modern workers and increases the demand for qualified, educated specialists. Now a person is required to have a high level of knowledge, the ability to learn quickly, assimilate new information, etc.

Gender inequality

Biological differences between men and women create an insurmountable barrier to eliminating gender inequality. To completely overcome differences, a woman, for example, will have to become as strong as a man, and a man will have to learn to give birth to children. Differences between the sexes are manifested in thinking, temperament, perception, psyche, etc.

A woman will not be able to work in many male professions, especially those that require physical strength, and a man will not be able to work in female professions. The division of professions by gender is quite natural. Thus, it is rare to find a woman striving to work as a loader, bricklayer, security guard or driver. It is also difficult to find a male teacher, nanny, nurse, seamstress, etc.

Society values ​​women's and men's work differently. For some reason, it is women’s professions that are usually low-paid; even for the same work as a man, a woman often receives a lower salary. Perhaps this is because women's low wages are not seen as a serious problem, since it is assumed that most of them should be supported by their spouse. But this deprives women of independence and does not take into account the fact that, in fact, most of them do not receive any support from men.

Having a child as a woman is an obstacle to building a career. A woman drops out of work for a period of time, taking on a significant amount of unpaid, unvalued housework. Burdened with children, she is simply forced to devote a significant part of her time to home.

The structure of modern society is still very patriarchal: highly paid and prestigious jobs are usually carried out by men. In countries with a low standard of living, low literacy and education, the most important source of employment for women remains agriculture or other jobs with a predominance of manual labor. In developed countries, women have the opportunity to study and work. They are more engaged in healthcare, education, and other areas related to intellectual activity.

The double standard for women is determined by traditions, customs, family values, existing ethics and morality. Gender inequality harms entire societies and negatively impacts economic development. Countries in which women enjoy equal rights are more developed and affluent.

Age-related inequalities

At every age, a person has different learning abilities, different creative and physical activity. You can’t expect an older person to be the same as a young person. Due to physiological changes, with age it becomes harder to assimilate and remember information, and it becomes harder to work. This is largely due to the negative attitude of employers towards people of pre-retirement age.

Problems with employment also arise among young people. A young man, a recent graduate, finds it difficult to find a job due to lack of experience. It turns out to be a vicious circle when there is no experience and nowhere to acquire it. Some employers discriminate against young people by paying lower wages than older employees, believing that they must first earn equal treatment. If society is focused on the future, on development, then young people must integrate into adult working life as quickly as possible on equal rights. A person at a young age wants to earn money, live well, start a family, this requires significant funds.

Inequality by nationality, race

Apparently, it has not yet been possible to completely eliminate the remnants of the slave system, if people of a different nationality or race find themselves limited in the choice of work and are forced to take low-paid, hard work, change their place of residence, change the country in search of a better life. Integration into normal life in another country may take more than a decade, and all this time there will be obstacles to equal membership in society, especially if there are external differences or poor knowledge of local traditions and language.

But it’s not only newcomers who face difficulties. Modern migration flows are gaining such strength that the population historically living in a given territory may find themselves in an unequal position, in the minority. National diasporas and clans defend their interests, ignoring the laws adopted in society, creating the environment they need, openly displacing the indigenous population from some areas of activity.

An employer who hires a migrant who agrees to work for pennies harms, first of all, his fellow citizens by depriving them of employment opportunities. An excessive number of migrants leads to a drop in wages in some sectors of the economy. When cheap labor is available, there is no need to improve production processes or increase labor productivity.

Inequality by place of residence

Discrimination at the place of residence is associated with unequal access to educational, medical and other services, and the inability to find work in one’s specialty. This is clearly noticeable in cities where there is only one city-forming enterprise, or in rural areas where the range of activities is limited to agriculture.

Obstacles to moving a person to more prosperous regions can be a lack of funds, lack of housing, and reluctance to part with loved ones. If a person decides to change his country of residence, then additional difficulties will arise in obtaining citizenship.

It is not the ordinary person’s fault that he was born, raised and lives in a depressed region or country, that his social status is predetermined by unequal territorial opportunities.

The state itself differentiates regions, establishing differences between them. People receive different wages for equal work, depending on the region. Such differences can be justified only if there is an urgent need to attract missing specialists, or as compensation for difficult climatic conditions. In all other cases, discrimination against people based on their place of residence cannot be justified in any way.

Possession of a profitable profession or position

Typically, young people want to study and acquire one of the prestigious professions in order to be in demand, highly paid specialists in the future. But this cannot always be achieved for various reasons, one of them is unequal access to educational services. A person who is naturally capable can study in a school with “weak” teachers. As a result, his abilities will remain undiscovered by anyone.

Large differences in wages for individual professions give rise to social inequality. The overvaluation of some of them leads to a significant difference in salaries, tens of times, in relation to the average earnings of all other workers. The criteria for such differentiation are unclear. Indeed, with the appropriate organization of training, it is possible to fill the shortage of any specialists within several years, or even months. Only a person with unique abilities and talents truly deserves high praise from society, including in material terms. However, there are relatively few such people.

Managers have the highest salaries today. A manager, even a mid-level one, can receive a salary equal to the salary of a small team. Is his contribution really that significant? Most likely no. It’s just that a system has developed in which the appropriation of the results of social labor has become completely legal and commonplace, which manifests itself in the form of inflated payments to the management apparatus. This state of affairs cannot be called anything other than legalized theft. A doctor who saves lives or a scientist who conducts important research receives a meager monetary reward, compared to the directors of large companies, whose salaries can support entire organizations. The benefit from management’s activities is not comparable to their income, and it should also be taken into account that appointment to leadership positions does not always occur in an honest, open manner.

Inequality due to family composition

Let's take a family of two as an example. They are successful and earn good money together. They can easily be classified as the notorious middle class. At some point they decide to have a child. After a certain period of time, a woman goes on maternity leave, and family income decreases. With the birth of a child, expenses increase, which further reduces the family's standard of living. As a result, the middle class family will move closer to the less affluent segments of the population. What if there are already several children in the family?

To ensure the average per capita income of the middle class for a family of four or five people, the head of the family will have to work hard, losing health, sacrificing personal time and life. The situation is even worse when a woman is a single mother without support. Her social position is very precarious and almost always borders on poverty.

A successful combination of circumstances that contribute to a person’s enrichment

It's rare to win the lottery, but it still happens. A person can become a millionaire in an instant. Chance plays a big role in our lives. Even many scientific discoveries were made completely by accident.

Some people are always in search of their soulmate and cannot find it, they change jobs all their lives in search of more income and cannot earn anything. On the contrary, others immediately get a good job, earn decent money, get married and live with one person all their lives. A successful combination of circumstances and chance play a significant role here. Winning the lottery, receiving an inheritance, unexpected success in business - all these events are of a random nature and have a significant impact on a person’s life.

An active life position will help increase the likelihood of a successful combination of circumstances, because, as you know, water does not flow under a lying stone.

3. Inequality generated by the peculiarities of the social and state structure

Inequality associated with the existence of the state is expressed by:

• the need to maintain hierarchy;
• in the possession of material values, property;
• in belonging to a certain group of people, party, diaspora, sect, etc. ;

Hierarchy in the state

In any control system there is a certain hierarchy, there are control centers and transmission links through which the management of a separate object or objects is carried out. When the hierarchy is eliminated, the system will be destroyed as a single integral structure.

In the state, hierarchy is expressed in the form of the presence of branches of power and structures that perform the functions of management, execution and control in society. Power, by its very existence, creates inequality between those who have it and those who do not. It is not possible to eliminate such inequality, otherwise the state itself will have to be destroyed.

The need to maintain control in society gives rise to the division of people into classes:

• managers, who directly holds power;
• people close to power, i.e. officials called upon to control and carry out the will of the authorities;
• people defending power: police, other security forces;
• people who occupy a privileged position in society due to position, wealth;
• ordinary people: workers, employees, intellectuals who perform the main work of maintaining and servicing the entire state system.

People vested with government power have special powers through which they can influence any organization, which puts them in the hierarchy above any head of a commercial company. Big business, understanding this, tries to bring the people it needs into power structures and organizes to defend its interests. The merging of business and government is a problem of modern society, leading to the fact that a relatively small layer of the richest people begins to have full power, acting in purely personal interests, not paying attention to the opinion of the majority, putting proprietary interests above state interests.

Possession of material assets, property

Possession of means of production, financial assets, and other types of property is one of the sources of social inequality between people. Property can be obtained by inheritance, gift, acquired with personal or borrowed funds, seized by force or through financial fraud.

Property, if properly managed, can bring profit to its owners. Money that is in circulation creates new money and makes the one who has it even richer, increasing social stratification.

Under a capitalist system, capital tends to concentrate among a relatively small layer of society - the financial elite. The concentration of significant resources in one hand creates an obstacle to the realization of the abilities of other people. Most of society is forced to hire people who have already been successful. Ordinary people are partly deprived of opportunities to realize their professional preferences, because they may not have enough funds to organize their own business, and it is very difficult to break into already occupied market niches. And yet, sometimes, an ordinary person manages to start his own business and develop it successfully.

In any field of activity, several factors contribute to success, among which the personal qualities of a person and a successful combination of external circumstances are especially significant. Having accumulated some funds, the owner of his own business seeks to expand it in order to feel more confident. Having reached a certain level in business, he joins a special privileged part of society. People with financial resources have significant capabilities and carry out management functions. They can create enterprises, hire workers, and set wages. The owners of large commercial companies have a significant impact on the economy and on the lives of ordinary people.

The owner class tries to secure its exclusive position in society by creating special living conditions for itself. Accumulated wealth is passed on from generation to generation, creating inequality regardless of a person's abilities.

Belonging to a specific group of people

A group of people, united by some common interests, is able to accumulate forces and means to maintain their existence. A person's joining a group promises him certain benefits. If life problems arise, there will be someone to turn to for help. The simplest and most famous example of a group of people is a family. It is in it, most often, that a person finds spiritual and material support.

Belonging to a political party, a religious sect, or even a criminal organization are all examples of groups that people typically belong to. They help their members advance their careers and provide assistance in business. This is done with the expectation that, in the future, the successful person will be able to receive some dividends for the rest of the group.

Ways to eliminate inequality

1. It is impossible to eliminate the causes of inequality due to internal and external differences between people. It is unfair to reduce everything to a simple “equalization”, without paying attention to personal achievements and results. People who work better should earn more, this is quite logical. But you should understand that no matter what unique talents a person has, he is in demand only due to the fact that he lives in society. Without society, none of us would be able to express ourselves, realize our abilities.

What would a person do with his talents if he suddenly found himself alone in a deep forest or on a desert island? Surely he would have waged a constant struggle for his existence, trying to simply survive. The usual comfort will disappear from his life, there will be no things that people use every day without really thinking about it. Any disease will become extremely dangerous when there are no doctors and medicines nearby. In such a situation, the most that a person can achieve is to build modest housing and create tools similar to those used in the Stone Age. No matter how hard he tries, he alone cannot achieve what people achieve when living in society.

The above example shows the existence of a person’s dependence on society and suggests that the merits of individuals should not be overestimated. Everything that modern civilization has achieved is the product of the joint creativity of many people over several generations, and even very capable people should not be allowed to live in luxury, since they would not be able to express themselves outside of society.

Money has never been of decisive importance in the development of society. Many scientists and researchers were driven forward, first of all, by curiosity and the desire to understand the truth, and not by the desire to gain profit. It is not money and the size of the salary that are the incentive to study and get something new, but a person’s natural interest in everything unknown, the desire for knowledge, for understanding the world around us.

2. In a civilized society there must be a system that ensures control of people's income and expenses. This must be done so that there is an understanding of the origin of the funds and confidence that they were not obtained in any dishonest way. The excess of expenses over income indicates the receipt of money from unaccounted sources, and their origin should be explained. In principle, total control is not needed; it is quite enough to check with what funds large purchases are made, especially luxury items.

Control over income will avoid the existence in the state of a shadow, unofficial labor market, in which the relationship between employer and employee is not regulated by law, and where it is impossible to determine a person’s employment and income. The phenomenon of “envelope” salaries is an example of unfair distribution of money and deception of the state. Additionally, control will help identify managers who use their official position for personal enrichment.

A person’s desire to earn money is beneficial to society, since it constantly needs active people interested in their own well-being. Monetary rewards help further motivate a person to achieve high performance at work. When money is earned by honest labor, and not acquired by deception, then this is beneficial to the person himself and society.

3. The state is obliged to smooth out the difference in income between the lowest-paid and highest-paid segments of the population. It is unacceptable when some people make ends meet, while others do not know where else to spend their money. In no case should the difference in income reach significant proportions, otherwise it will negatively affect the entire society. When a significant difference between the incomes of citizens is reached, the problem of inequality becomes acute. The state is obliged to provide support to socially vulnerable segments of the population, people with low incomes, and, even better, to act proactively and prevent the emergence of a category of needy citizens.

Today money has begun to determine the face of power. The richest are people who are in power, close to it or serving its interests. Social justice will not be achieved in the state until it stops acting in accordance with the will of people who have a lot of money and begins to make and implement decisions that are beneficial to the entire society.

4. Equal access to educational services, regardless of social origin, place of residence, etc., will enable a person to reveal his abilities. Lack of equal access effectively perpetuates economic, social and cultural inequalities.

A prerequisite for maintaining equality in education is the availability of free education at all levels, the creation of a sufficient number of places in educational institutions so that everyone who wants to study can realize their preferences. The only obstacle to obtaining an education may be an incorrect assessment of one’s own capabilities by the person himself, or the lack of sufficient physical and mental data necessary for training in the chosen profession. However, in a quality education system, abilities are identified and training in accordance with them is recommended.

A state that invests in education, invests in human capital, makes society more cultural and developed.

5. It is very difficult to eliminate social inequality while laws remain in society that allow one to inherit material values ​​without any restrictions. Through inheritance, a person from a wealthy family will have clear advantages from birth.

To eliminate this cause of inequality, measures should be developed to limit the size of inherited property and funds. The motive for accumulating wealth for children and grandchildren, as an incentive to increase savings, must gradually be destroyed. Such measures will ensure social justice and an equal start for young people, regardless of who their parents were.

6. The structure of the economic structure in any country is heterogeneous. There are highly profitable industries related to mining, trade, IT, etc., and there are industries that, by definition, will never be able to make a profit (education, medicine, science). Without the redistribution of financial resources in the state, organizations performing social functions will not be able to exist. The work of a teacher or doctor is no less important than the work of an oil, gas, or programmer. To avoid injustice, the state should monitor wages in different sectors of the economy and equalize them as much as possible.

7. Fair pay implies that people receive equal pay for the same work. This is possible if the organization has adopted a transparent, open system that reflects the income of each employee. However, today it is not customary to declare one’s own income, which is explained by the existing injustice in the distribution of funds. If everything were without deception, then there would be nothing to hide. Today, quite often people, working in the same team, doing the same work, receive different salaries.

Employers contribute to maintaining inequality by creating an atmosphere of secrecy. The true goal of this behavior is to save on employees and extract maximum benefits for yourself. They take into account the psychology of people, understanding that someone may agree to work for less money.

The civilized approach is for all people working in one team to know the incomes of their colleagues. Then it will become clear how fairly the payment is made, and whether it corresponds to the real return from each individual person.

Of course, the work of people who make a greater contribution to the common cause should be valued higher, but this difference should not be significantly different. It should be taken into account that the result of work in a team has a social nature.

To prevent the stratification of people, it is necessary to ensure a fair distribution of profits received in the organization and eliminate significant differences in income between managers and subordinates.

8. If uncontrolled migration processes occur in a country, it means that there are internal sources of instability that contribute to the uncontrolled movement of people. Usually people do not leave their homeland because of a good life. For most of them, migration is a forced necessity, an attempt to escape from wars, violence, hunger, poverty, etc.

Countries receiving migrants have responsibilities to integrate those arriving into society. Providing housing, language training, and professions are costly activities. Funds for all this are taken from the budget, which means they are taken from local residents. The manifestation of humanism is, of course, a good thing, but not a single economically developed country will be able to accept everyone who wants to come to it or shelter disadvantaged people from all over the world. Mass migration is a negative phenomenon, and one should fight not against the consequences, but against the causes that cause it.

To reduce migration flows, it is necessary to: prevent military conflicts, overcome backwardness in the cultural and educational spheres, and eliminate economic inequality between countries.

9. In any organization there are always people who perform management functions. They occupy a special position in society, and this creates inequality. To eliminate it, there is one universal recipe: you need to ensure a periodic change of leaders.

The principle of leadership turnover may well be applied throughout the state. The turnover of management personnel creates conditions for ensuring social mobility and implies the movement of people from one social group to another.

At work, bosses must periodically replace each other, in the state - politicians, and all this must be perceived as a mandatory rule to maintain social justice. To prevent incapable or selfish people from getting into leadership positions, it is necessary to conduct a careful selection, first of all, based on the person’s moral and mental qualities.

10. It is very difficult to completely eliminate inequality. Therefore, people need to develop an adequate perception of it. Condemn extreme manifestations of inequality, flaunting of wealth and luxury. A person’s success should not be measured solely by the possession of material values ​​and wealth. The real wealth of a person is his intellect and moral qualities. People must realize the exceptional value of human life, and that no things can compare with it in importance.

Diary

Major deception

In the morning - money, in the evening - chairs. This option still seems acceptable compared to what modern officials offer us: money today, and service in a few years. Doesn't this look like a scam?

About housing and communal services

In Russia, annual increases in tariffs for housing and communal services have become commonplace. The need for this is explained by the fact that service companies and resource suppliers need to compensate for losses from inflation.

Some representatives of sociological thought believe that the main reason for the unequal position of people in society is the social division of labor. However, scientists explain in different ways the ensuing consequences and, especially, the reasons for the reproduction of inequality

Herbert Spencer believes that the source of inequality is conquest. Thus, the ruling class is the winners, and the lower class is the losers. Prisoners of war become slaves, free farmers become serfs. On the other hand, frequent or constant wars lead to the deliberate dominance of those who function in the state and military sphere. Thus, the law of natural selection operates: the stronger dominate and occupy a privileged position, while the weak are subordinate to them and are on the lower steps of the social ladder.

The development of the sociology of inequality, the idea of ​​evolution and the law of natural selection had a significant influence. One of the directions of evolutionism is social Darwinism. What all representatives of this trend had in common was the recognition that the same struggle is going on between human societies as between biological organisms.

Karl Marx believed that initially the division of labor does not lead to the subordination of some people by others, but, being a factor in the mastery of natural resources, causes professional specialization. But the increasing complexity of the production process contributes to the division of labor into physical and mental. This division historically preceded the formation of private property and classes. With their appearance, certain areas, types and functions of activity are assigned to the corresponding classes. From this time on, each class is engaged in its assigned occupation, owns or does not own property, and is located on different rungs of the ladder of social status. The causes of inequality lie in the system of production, in the different attitudes towards the means of production, which allows those who own property not only to exploit those who do not have it, but also to dominate them. To eliminate inequality, it is necessary to expropriate private property and its nationalization.

In contrast to Marx, Weber, in addition to the economic aspect of stratification, took into account such aspects as power and prestige. Weber viewed property, power, and prestige as three separate, interacting factors that underlie hierarchies in any society. Differences in ownership give rise to economic classes; differences related to power give rise to political parties, and differences of prestige give rise to status groupings, or strata. From here he formulated his idea of ​​“three autonomous dimensions of stratification.” He emphasized that “classes”, “status groups” and “parties” are phenomena related to the distribution of power within a community.
Weber's main contradiction with Marx is that, according to Weber, a class cannot be a subject of action, since it is not a community. In contrast to Marx, Weber associated the concept of class only with capitalist society, where the most important regulator of relations is the market. Through it, people satisfy their needs for material goods and services.

However, in the market people occupy different positions or are in different “class situations”. Everything is bought and sold here. Some sell goods and services; others - labor. The difference here is that some people own property while others do not. Weber does not have a clear class structure of capitalist society, so different interpreters of his works give different lists of classes.

Taking into account his methodological principles and summarizing his historical, economic and sociological works, we can reconstruct Weber's typology of classes under capitalism as follows:

1. The working class, deprived of property. He offers on the market
its services and is differentiated by skill level.
2. Petty bourgeoisie - a class of small businessmen and traders.
3. Dispossessed white collar workers: technical specialists and intellectuals.
4. Administrators and managers.
5. Owners who also strive through education for the advantages that intellectuals have.
5.1 Class of owners, i.e. those who receive rent from land ownership,
mines, etc.
5.2 “Commercial class”, i.e. entrepreneurs.

Inequality criteria

Max Weber identified three criteria for inequality:

Wealth.

The level of education.

The degree of religious or ritual purity under the caste system in India.

Ranking by kinship and ethnic groups.

Using the first criterion, the degree of inequality can be measured by differences in income. Using the second criterion - the difference in honor and respect. Using the third criterion - by the number of subordinates. Sometimes there is a contradiction between the criteria, for example, a professor and a priest today have a low income, but enjoy great prestige. The mafia leader is rich, but his prestige in society is minimal. According to statistics, rich people live longer and get sick less. A person's career is influenced by wealth, race, education, parental occupation, and personal ability to lead people. A higher education makes it easier to move up the career ladder in large companies than in small ones.

Social inequality - a form of differentiation in which individuals, social groups, strata, classes are at different levels of the vertical social hierarchy and have unequal life chances and opportunities to satisfy needs.

In its most general form, inequality means that people live in conditions in which they have unequal access to limited resources for material and spiritual consumption.

Fulfilling qualitatively unequal working conditions and satisfying social needs to varying degrees, people sometimes find themselves engaged in economically heterogeneous labor, because these types of labor have different assessments of their social usefulness.

The main mechanisms of social inequality are relations of property, power (dominance and subordination), social (that is, socially assigned and hierarchized) division of labor, as well as uncontrolled, spontaneous social differentiation. These mechanisms are primarily associated with the characteristics of a market economy, with inevitable competition (including in the labor market) and unemployment. Social inequality is perceived and experienced by many people (primarily the unemployed, economic migrants, those who find themselves at or below the poverty line) as a manifestation of injustice. Social inequality and wealth stratification in society, as a rule, lead to increased social tension, especially during the transition period. This is precisely what is typical for Russia at present.

The main principles of social policy are:

the establishment of socialist power with the subsequent transition to communism and the withering away of the state;

protecting the standard of living by introducing various forms of compensation for price increases and indexing;

providing assistance to the poorest families;

issuing assistance in case of unemployment;

ensuring social insurance policy, establishing a minimum wage for workers;

development of education, health protection, and the environment mainly at the expense of the state;

pursuing an active policy aimed at ensuring qualifications.

Social inequality would seem to be a relic of the past and should go into oblivion, but the modern reality is that in one form or another, stratification in society is still present today, and this gives rise to a feeling of injustice among those people who are affected by social inequality.

Social inequality - what is it?

Social class inequality has existed since ancient times of human evolution. The history of different countries serves as clear evidence of what oppression and enslavement of people leads to - riots, food riots, wars and revolutions. But this experience, written in blood, teaches nothing. Yes, now it has taken on softer, veiled forms. How is social inequality expressed and what does it look like today?

Social inequality is the division or differentiation of people into classes, societies or groups, according to their position in society, which implies unequal use of opportunities, benefits and rights. If we imagine social inequality schematically in the form of a ladder, then at its lowest steps there will be the oppressed, the poor, and at the top the oppressors and those who have power and money in their hands. This is the main sign of the stratification of society into poor and rich. There are other indicators of social inequality.

Causes of social inequality

What are the causes of social inequality? Economists see the root cause in unequal treatment of property and the distribution of material wealth in general. R. Michels (German sociologist) saw the reason in the endowment of great privileges and powers to the apparatus of power, which was chosen by the people themselves. The reasons for the emergence of social inequality according to the French sociologist E. Durkheim:

1. Encouraging people who bring the greatest benefit to society, the best in their field.
2. Unique personal qualities and talents of a person that distinguish him from the general society.

Types of social inequality

The forms of social inequality are different, so there are several classifications. Types of social inequality based on physiological characteristics:

• age - applies to all people at certain age intervals, this can be seen when hiring, young people are not hired due to lack of experience, older people, despite their vast experience, are replaced by young people who are more promising from the point of view of management;
• social sexual inequality - here we can consider such a phenomenon as, expressed in the fact that there are few women holding responsible positions participating in the economic life of the country, a woman is assigned a role “behind her husband”;
• social ethnic inequality - small ethnic groups, those that are not included in the concept of “white race,” are largely oppressed due to such phenomena as xenophobia and racism.

Social inequality in connection with statuses in society:

• absence/presence of wealth;
• proximity to power.

Manifestation of social inequality

The main signs of social inequality are observed in such a phenomenon as the division of labor. Human activities are diverse and each person is endowed with some talents and skills, abilities for growth. Social inequality manifests itself as the giving of privileges to those who are more talented and promising for society. Stratification of society or stratification (from the word “strata” - geological layer) is the building of a hierarchical ladder, division into classes, and if earlier it was slaves and slave owners, feudal lords and servants, then at the present stage it is a division into:

• top class;
• middle class;
• low-income (socially vulnerable);
• below the poverty line.

Consequences of social inequality

Social inequality and poverty, generated by the fact that only a select few can use the planet's main resources, gives rise to conflicts and wars among the population. The consequences are developing gradually and are expressed in the slow development of many countries, this leads to the fact that progress in the economy is also slowing down, democracy as a system is losing its position, tension, discontent, psychological pressure and social disharmony are growing in society. According to the UN, half of the world's resources are owned by 1% of the so-called top elite (world domination).

Pros of social inequality

Social inequality in society as a phenomenon does not have only negative properties; if we look at social inequality from a positive side, then we can note important things, looking closely at which the thought arises that everything “has its place under the Sun.” The advantages of social inequality for humans:

• an incentive to become the best in your field, to demonstrate your abilities and talents to the maximum;
• motivation for those who want;
• ordering in the economic sphere, those who have capital produce resources, in contrast to those who do not have capital and are only able to feed themselves and their families.

Examples of social inequality in history

Examples of social inequality or stratification systems:

1. Slavery- an extreme degree of enslavement, the original type of social inequality known since ancient times.
2. Castes. A type of social stratification that has developed since ancient times, when social inequality was determined by caste, a child being born belonged to a certain caste from birth. In India, it was believed that a person's birth into a particular caste depended on his actions in a past life. There are only 4 castes: the highest - brahmins, kshatriyas - warriors, vaishyas - merchants, traders, shudras - peasants (lower caste).
3. Estates. The upper classes - the nobility and clergy had the legal right to transfer property by inheritance. The unprivileged class - artisans, peasants.

Modern forms of social inequality

Social inequality in modern society is an integral property, therefore the social theory of functionalism views stratification in a positive way. American sociologist B. Barber divided modern types of social stratification based on 6 criteria:

1. Prestige of the profession.
2. Having power.
3. Wealth and income.
4. Religious affiliation.
5. Availability of education, possession of knowledge.
6. Belonging to one or another ethnic group or nation.

Social inequality in the world

The problem of social inequality is that it gives rise to racism, xenophobia, and discrimination based on gender. The most revealing criterion of social inequality around the world is the difference in income of the population. The factors influencing stratification in society throughout the world remain the same as many years ago:

• way of life– urban or rural, it is a known fact that in villages wages are lower than in cities, and conditions are often worse, and there is more work;
• social roles(mother, father, teacher, official) - determine status, prestige, presence of power, property;
• division of labor– physical and intellectual work are paid differently.

Aspects of inequality

Inequality in human society acts as one of the current objects of sociological research. Its reasons also lie in several main aspects.

Inequality initially implies different opportunities and unequal access to available social and material goods. Among these benefits are the following:

1. Income is a certain amount of money that a person receives per unit of time. Often, income is directly the wage that is paid for the labor produced by a person and the physical or mental strength expended. In addition to labor, it can also be the ownership of property that “works.” Thus, the lower a person’s income, the lower the level he is in the hierarchy of society;
2. Education is a complex of knowledge, skills and abilities acquired by a person during his stay in educational institutions. Educational attainment is measured by the number of years of schooling. These can range from 9 years (junior high school). For example, a professor may have more than 20 years of education behind him; accordingly, he will be at a much higher level than a person who has completed 9 grades;
3. Power is the ability of an individual to impose his worldview and point of view on wider sections of the population, regardless of their desire. The level of power is measured by the number of people over which it extends;
4. Prestige is a position in society and its assessment, which has developed on the basis of public opinion.

Causes of social inequality

For a long time, many researchers have wondered whether society can exist in principle if there is no inequality or hierarchy in it. In order to answer this question, it is necessary to understand the causes of social inequality.

Different approaches interpret this phenomenon and its causes differently. Let's analyze the most influential and famous ones.

Note 1

Functionalism explains the phenomenon of inequality based on the variety of social functions. These functions are inherent in different layers, classes and communities.

The functioning and development of social relations are possible only under the condition of division of labor. In this situation, each social group solves problems that are vital for the entire society. Some are engaged in the creation and production of material goods, while the activities of others are aimed at creating spiritual values. A control layer is also needed that will control the activities of the first two - hence the third.

For the successful functioning of society, a combination of all three of the above types of human activity is simply necessary. Some turn out to be the most important, and some the least. Thus, based on the hierarchies of functions, a hierarchy of classes and layers that perform them is formed.

Status explanation of social inequality. It is based on observations of the actions and behavior of specific individuals. As we understand, every person who occupies a certain place in society automatically acquires his status. Hence the opinion that social inequality is, first of all, inequality of status. It stems both from the ability of individuals to perform a certain role, and from the opportunities that allow a person to achieve a certain position in society.

In order for an individual to fulfill one or another social role, he needs to have certain skills, abilities and qualities (to be competent, sociable, to have the appropriate knowledge and skills to be a teacher, engineer). The opportunities that allow a person to achieve a particular position in society are, for example, ownership of property, capital, origin from a famous and wealthy family, belonging to a high class or political forces.

An economic view of the causes of social inequality. In accordance with this point of view, the main reason for social inequality lies in unequal treatment of property and distribution of material wealth. This approach was most clearly manifested under Marxism, when it was the emergence of private property that led to the social stratification of society and the formation of antagonistic classes.

Problems of social inequality

Social inequality is a very common phenomenon, and therefore, like many other manifestations in society, it faces a number of problems.

Firstly, problems of inequality arise simultaneously in two of the most developed areas of society: in the social and economic spheres.

When we talk about problems of inequality in the public sphere, it is worth mentioning the following manifestations of instability:

1. Uncertainty about one’s future, as well as about the stability of the position in which the individual currently finds himself;
2. Suspension of production due to dissatisfaction on the part of various segments of the population, which leads to a shortage of products for others;
3. Growing social tension, which can lead to consequences such as riots, social conflicts;
4. Lack of real social elevators that will allow you to move up the social ladder both from bottom to top and vice versa - from top to bottom;
5. Psychological pressure due to a feeling of unpredictability of the future, lack of clear forecasts for further development.

In the economic sphere, the problems of social inequality are expressed as follows: an increase in government costs for the production of certain goods or services, a partially unfair distribution of income (received not by those who actually work and use their physical strength, but by those who invest more money), respectively, from here Another significant problem arises - unequal access to resources.

Note 2

A special feature of the problem of inequality of access to resources is that it is both a cause and a consequence of modern social inequality.

Inequality characterizes the uneven distribution of society's scarce resources - money, power, education and prestige - between different strata or segments of the population. On the inequality scale, the rich will be at the top and the poor at the bottom.

If wealth is a sign of the upper class, then income - the flow of cash receipts for a certain calendar period, say, a month or a year - characterizes all layers of society. Income is any amount of money received in the form of wages, pensions, rent, benefits, alimony, fees, etc. Even the alms of beggars, obtained by begging and expressed in monetary terms, represents a type of income.

On this basis, the following population groups can be distinguished: (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 - Units of measurement of economic inequality by population group

From Figure 1.1 it follows that the population is divided into 4 groups:

1. Rich

2. Middle class

The fact is that along with a broad understanding of income, there is a narrow one. In a statistical sense, income is the amount of money that people earn due to belonging to a certain profession (type of occupation) or due to the legal disposal of property. However, beggars, even if they regularly earn a living by begging, do not provide any valuable services to society. And statistics take into account only those sources of income that are associated with the provision of valuable, socially significant services or with the production of goods. Beggars are included in the so-called underclass, i.e. literally not a class, or a layer below all classes. Thus, beggars fall out of the official income pyramid.

The essence of social inequality lies in the unequal access of different categories of the population to socially significant benefits, scarce resources, and liquid values. The essence of economic inequality is that a narrow layer of society owns most of the national wealth. The income of the majority may be distributed differently. For example, in the United States, the income level of the majority allows us to speak of the presence of a large middle class, while in Russia the income level of the majority of the population is often below the subsistence level. Accordingly, the income pyramid, its distribution between population groups, in other words, inequality, can be depicted in the first case as a rhombus, and in the second as a cone. As a result, we get a stratification profile, or an inequality profile.

The essence of social inequality

The diversity of relationships, roles, and positions lead to differences between people in each particular society. The problem comes down to somehow ordering these relationships between categories of people that differ in many aspects.

What is inequality? In its most general form, inequality means that people live in conditions in which they have unequal access to limited resources for material and spiritual consumption. To describe the system of inequality between groups of people in sociology, the concept of “social stratification” is widely used.

When considering the problem of social inequality, it is quite justified to proceed from the theory of socio-economic heterogeneity of labor. Performing qualitatively unequal types of labor, satisfying social needs to varying degrees, people sometimes find themselves engaged in economically heterogeneous labor, because such types of labor have different assessments of their social utility.

The essence of social inequality, as we have already said, lies in the unequal access of different categories of the population to socially significant benefits, scarce resources, and liquid values. The essence of economic inequality is that a minority of the population always owns the majority of national wealth. In other words, the highest incomes are received by the smallest part of society, and the average and lowest incomes are received by the majority of the population. The latter can be distributed in different ways. In the United States, the lowest incomes (as well as the highest) are received by a minority of the population, and the average income is received by the majority. In Russia today, the lowest incomes are received by the majority, the average incomes by a relatively large group, and the highest incomes by a minority of the population.

It is the socio-economic heterogeneity of labor that is not only a consequence, but also the reason for the appropriation of power, property, prestige by some people and the lack of all these advantages in the social hierarchy by others. Each group develops its own values ​​and norms and relies on them. If representatives of such groups are located according to a hierarchical principle, then these groups are social layers.

In social stratification there is a tendency to inherit positions. The principle of inheritance of positions leads to the fact that not all capable and educated individuals have equal chances to occupy positions of power, high principles and well-paid positions. There are two selection mechanisms at work here: unequal access to truly high-quality education and unequal opportunities for equally qualified individuals to obtain positions.

Social stratification has a traditional character: the inequality of position of different groups of people persists throughout the history of civilization. Even in primitive societies, age and sex, combined with physical strength, were important criteria for stratification.

Let us imagine a situation where there are numerous social strata in society, the social distance between which is small, the level of mobility is high, the lower strata constitute a minority of members of society, rapid technological growth constantly raises the “bar” of meaningful work at the lower tiers of production positions, social protection of the weak, among other things, guarantees the strong and advanced peace of mind and the realization of potentialities. It is difficult to deny that such a society, such interlayer interaction, is more likely an ideal model in its own way than an everyday reality.

Most modern societies are far from this model. They are characterized by the concentration of power and resources among a numerically small elite. The concentration of such status attributes among the elite as power, property and education impedes social interaction between the elite and other strata and leads to excessive social distance between it and the majority. This means that the middle class is small and the upper class is deprived of communication with other groups. It is obvious that such a social order contributes to destructive conflicts.