"Inequality and Social Stratification"

In the article "Inequality and Social Stratification", by Robert A. Rothman, confronted by statistics - good, solid facts - combined with, not so much personal experiences, but I guess you could call it "common knowledge"...things you hear on the news, read in newspapers, magazines, online, etc. In my opinion, this is the best kind of article. It gives you the facts, but is not so dry as to be tedious.

The article concentrated on the three major forms of inequality - economic, social, and political. The economic disparities are the most visible. We see professional athletes, entertainers, and corporate businessmen earning millions of dollars per year. We see people lucky enough to be "born into money" - Paris Hilton, the duPonts, etc - never worry about shelter, clothing, or where their next meal will come from.
That being said, in America alone, more than 43 million people go without health insurance each year! One single visit to a regular doctor can cost anywhere between $100 and $300 dollars - and that's without getting a physical! Try to go to a specialist and you're looking at a bill for upwards of $400 dollars. That doesn't include the cost of any prescriptions or shots or any other treatment deemed necessary by the doctor...
"One child in ten lives in poverty in major industrial nations - Australia, Britain, Canada, Ireland, Israel, and Italy. In America, it is one child in five!" (page 2 of article) In 2006, the US Census Bureau decided that it knew what the poverty line should be. The average size of an American family is about 4 people, which means if they collectively make $20,614 per year, they are considered to be in poverty. For the hell of it, let's just flesh this one out. Let's take the figure $20,615 (which means the family is NOT considered to be in poverty) and play around here:

$20,615.00 yearly income
- 5,997.00 price of cheapest used car

- 2,339.00 yearly gas expenditure

- 6,525.60 yearly food expenditure on "thrifty plan"
- 8,100.00 yearly rent for a 2 bedroom apartment

- 400.00 yearly clothing bought at a thrift shop
- 2746.60

What do you give up? Where do you sacrifice? Do you tell your kids they have to go to school in dirty clothes with patches and holes? Do you tell them you don't have anything for dinner?

Social status...whoo boy... Don't even get me going on this one... But I guess I kinda have to cover it here. People can "earn" their social status (based on skills, personal appearance, etc), but most people never get the chance to do that because of their class, gender, race, etc. Women have always been ranked below men. The poor will never win. And if you're not white, you're screwed. A few "tokens" pop through every once in a while...Tiger Woods, Sarah Palin, Obama... But they're not "the real thing". They might have busted their butts to get to where they are, but they're just held up in opposition to the people from their "group", where they "really" belong...

Palin and Obama is a nice segue into the political aspect of inequality. A small percentage of people in America hold the power, but they hold ALL the power. Power is not something shared among the people, even though we supposedly live in a democracy. Power is collected, consumed, swallowed, gobbled up by a few people, and those few people control the rest of the population.

All in all, this article has accomplished exactly what it was supposed to do: present statistics, raise awareness, and piss me off!