Response 1
2
50 words 2 references
Casey
For my discussion, I picked the United Kingdom, which has a
social and economic system closely related to America. In his
article,
The
psychology
of
social
class:
How
socioeconomic
status
impacts
thought,
feelings,
and
behaviour,
Antony
Manstead says ‘One of the ironies of modern Western societies,
with their emphasis on meritocratic values that promote the
notion that people can achi
eve what they want if they have
enough talent and are prepared to work hard, is that the
divisions between social classes are becoming wider, not
narrower.’ (2018). The nation’s wealthiest people are increasing
their share of household wealth, while the na
tion’s poorest are
decreasing theirs. This wide disparity between economic classes
has formed a bigger gap between these groups socially, ‘but it is
patently true that the members of the different classes identified
by these researchers inhabit worlds that
rarely intersect, let
alone overlap.’ (Manstead, 2018). What’s interesting is that the
English society has been long known for very distinct social
classes based on economic status. I think of the books written
by Jane Austen, an English writer who publis
hed in the 18th
through 19th centuries. In Austen’s books, English society had a
very definite structure related to wealth passed down from one
generation to another. A person’s opportunity to move up was
very limited. Large estates were passed down to liv
ing relatives,
and marrying into the wealthy elite was not encouraged by the
Response 1
250 words 2 references
Casey
For my discussion, I picked the United Kingdom, which has a
social and economic system closely related to America. In his
article, The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic
status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour, Antony
Manstead says ‘One of the ironies of modern Western societies,
with their emphasis on meritocratic values that promote the
notion that people can achieve what they want if they have
enough talent and are prepared to work hard, is that the
divisions between social classes are becoming wider, not
narrower.’ (2018). The nation’s wealthiest people are increasing
their share of household wealth, while the nation’s poorest are
decreasing theirs. This wide disparity between economic classes
has formed a bigger gap between these groups socially, ‘but it is
patently true that the members of the different classes identified
by these researchers inhabit worlds that rarely intersect, let
alone overlap.’ (Manstead, 2018). What’s interesting is that the
English society has been long known for very distinct social
classes based on economic status. I think of the books written
by Jane Austen, an English writer who published in the 18th
through 19th centuries. In Austen’s books, English society had a
very definite structure related to wealth passed down from one
generation to another. A person’s opportunity to move up was
very limited. Large estates were passed down to living relatives,
and marrying into the wealthy elite was not encouraged by the