Edit my Paper and put it in APA Format

Running head: SOCIAL INEQUALITY 1

SOCIAL INEQUALITY 2

Social Inequality

The existing imbalance in the distribution and acquisition of opportunities and resources within the society according to the social stratification and social norms is what sociologists’ term as social inequality. The social hierarchy dictates which group gets what, how as well as why. This is done according to the social status, positions, class, gender, age, race, wealth and income as well as educational level. According to Karl Max who develops the conflict theory, he indicates that social inequality is caused by the difference in power where the group with the higher power in the society tends to exploit the lesser group. In this process, the ideological difference eventually results into cultural hegemony. The functionalists stated that social inequality is inevitable and desirable which affirms that social inequality plays a significant role in the society. Their idea is that meritocracy exists in a society and is significant since the group occupying higher positions as a result of social stratification should be rewarded much better than the group below them. For these reasons, the essay aims at discussing social inequality in details to help come up with the best explanation the sociologists have agreed for the past few years.

Wealth and income difference bring about the difference in social classes in society. Depending on the wealth of an individual, it results in upper class, middle class as well as a lower class which is the poor class(Kurz and Blossfeld, 2004). The various classes have access to entirely different opportunities and resources within the same society. While the upper class has unlimited access to the higher positions and better social services, the lower class can only access the poor services due to wealth difference. The wealthy class lives in mansions while the lower class is made up of the homeless and those who live in poverty in poor conditions. The upper class which consists of the smallest number of people in the society have the advantage of accessing all the better services since they can afford and also according to the social norms, they are highly respected and feared people, and thus they can have what they want. The difference in these social classes leads to social inequality given that only the upper class is entitled to better treatment and they tend to exploit the lower class(Neckerman, 2004).