Reflection

2

The Sociological Perspectives

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Unemployment as a Social Perspective

Unemployment is a critical social and economic problem that results in a tremendous influence on everything. Unemployment has spread like a disease worldwide that even when students at the university study, they do not usually have hopes about securing the job. Unemployed triggers petty and major crimes, especially for young people, including the likeliness of promoting street people due to homelessness (Soylu et al., 2018). Due to the incapability of paying rent and affording all the necessities for survival. Apart from financial hardships, unemployment is also the root cause of family tension and breakdown, stigma, social isolation, and decreased self-esteem. For instance, an employed person will also see themselves as a loser, failure, or someone with bad luck that cannot get others' lives.

Some people isolate themselves from the social world and even regret why they had to spend so much money and still not secure a decent job. That is why the majority of the youths around the world are associated with fraud, cyber-crimes, and other physical crimes like robbery, burglary, or theft. And making matters worse majority of the victims are learned people whom the government and other responsible bodies have failed to employ. They, therefore, resort to such drastic and risky lifestyles for survival. The social issue affects more males, for they lose respect from both parents, partners, and other close people, and as for the females, it triggers them to engage in prostitution for survival.

Theoretical Arguments of the Sociological Problem of Unemployment

According to the Utilitarian theory by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill who were philosophers and the economist, they state that an action is right if it enhances happiness and pleasure. An effort can be considered wrong if it generates unhappiness or pain (Purshouse, 2018). From the perspective of unemployment as a social problem, it is proper to conclude that the challenge creates misery for the victims and society. It develops pain since people lack the income to provide for their families, afford shelter or education. It also triggers young people to engage in petty crimes and other forms of wrong that stains society's moral code.

Unemployment has influenced the economy, which can be measured via GDP. The philosopher and sociologist Emily Durkheim's theory of Functionalism describe the sociological perspective of unemployment. According to Durkheim, the community was more significant than the total of its parts, and the basis for social order was moral compared to the economic. In the functionalist capitalist society, every individual had a crucial role, and they stressed the division of labor, and everyone was expected to do so. According to the theory, division of labor ensured balance in the community when people believed that what they were doing was for their interests (Pope, 1975). The theory asserts that unemployment should not be a problem because labor should be shared equally, including the resources and benefits.

On the other hand, the Conflict theory of Karl Marx asserts that society experiences different conflicts that are connected between classes like the lower, middle, and upper social classes. Karl Marx stated that the business people from upper classes focus on making profits and expanding their business. The middle class and lower people concentrate on making salaries to provide for their families. That is why the two groups (employer and employee) have conflicting interests, which have also informed the unemployment situation in the community (Moshiri, 2019). The rich continue to become more affluent, and the poor continue to evolve poorer and poorer.

References

Moshiri, F. (2019). Revolutionary conflict theory in an evolutionary perspective. In Revolutions of the Late Twentieth Century (pp. 4-36). Routledge.

Pope, W. (1975). Durkheim as a Functionalist. Sociological Quarterly, 16(3), 361-379.

Purshouse, C. (2018). Utilitarianism as tort theory: countering the caricature. Legal Studies, 38(1), 24-41.

Soylu, Ö. B., Çakmak, İ., & Okur, F. (2018). Economic growth and unemployment issue: Panel data analysis in Eastern European Countries.