Class and Equality

What is equality? This is the most fundamental question. Does it mean that everyone across the globe should have equal treatment in welfare, education, and human rights? Regardless of race, gender or religion, we should all be treated with equal respect and with equal opportunities. Why is this feasible in our modern world? It is because, with globalization and trade, we realize that we can only benefit more if we create peace and harmony between each other (more ideas and creativity; more production and manpower; more consumer base and profits). That means putting our differences aside and creating one society where everyone is happy and contented with their way of life. However, if people are treated differently and unfairly, there will certainly be disagreements and uncontentment.

In the past, hierarchy was dominant in almost any society. Men were more powerful than women, and societies were divided into social classes. The lower classes were peasants and workers who could never climb up the social ladder （except for exceptional people like Shakespeare who achieved fame）. They accepted their fate and even if they became slaves, they could never have the power to fight back against societal views of that time. Unlike today, any unfairness in anything can be resolved. If workers are abused, there will be unions to back them up. Poor people and minorities now dare to speak up about their disagreements and uncontentment of the unfair treatment of them. Why are they different from the people in the past? Where did get this ‘power’ from?  Because in this globalized world, the power that these people have is education. With education comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes awareness. This awareness could be about anything. It could be about human rights, society, environment and much more. It opened our perspective on our society.

In Singapore, we have government bodies like Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to safeguard the citizens of Singapore. We also have the Central Provident Fund (CPF) to secure us some financial stability when we retire. However, if workers are abused at work (in salary, defamation, etc.), how many will actually speak up to the unions? Suicide numbers in 2006 remains on of the highest yet, with an increase since 2002.[1]

Thus we have a discussion about Karl Marx and Adam Smith, who both had ideas on industrialization but has different views about them. They were extremists who believed in either one or the other one Adam Smith believed in uninterrupted government free trade while Karl Marx was more towards the communist side; he believed that the wealth should be shared equally among the people in the society.

Definitely, both views have their own pros and cons. Every situation has pros and cons. Although we are always searching for the ‘perfect’ system where there are NO cons at all, it is rather impossible because all of us have different ideas of a ‘perfect’ system, and sacrifice is an ultimate. We can only have a balance of pros and cons, and maybe use it to our advantage to make this society a better place to live in.

[END]

Despite our goal to reach equality, there are still so much disparities around the world. Firstly, we have the rich and the poor. These two categories not only occur between countries, but within countries itself. Like mentioned in the lecture, it could be because of the competitive society that caused this increasing income gap; the rich getting richer, and the poor becoming poorer. It is because if it is a competitive market, all companies will be aiming for profit, the human welfare is not top priority. What extra profits earned by the firm will not be passed down to the workers. Without government intervention, the poor will never have a chance to live a better life when the rich is gaining all the profits.

The apartheid was a famous system that separated the Whites from the Blacks in Africa. This is an inequality where the Whites gained all the benefits and lived a rich life while the Blacks were condemned to be poor, and were stripped off many social rights. Although now South Africa has abolished the apartheid system, the Blacks are still being and staying poor. South Africa’s Human Development Index (HDI) is one of the lowest in the world, ranking 121 out of 177 countries (in 2005). With majority of the Whites enjoying their wealth, we can only assume that the HDI was pulled down by the Blacks who could not get education, income or medical help (because they were poor). http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_ZAF.html

to be continued…

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[1] http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/pdf/20080804/suicide05.pdf

Humans are just plain selfish?

Different social problems occur in conjunction with the different eras and timelines. This might be due to the fact that in different eras, the society comes out with different ideals and beliefs.

 

‘Approach to Social Problems’ is basically focused on America itself; how it changed over the years in the twentieth-century. Skolnick states that with change, social problems will also in conjunction change as well. He divides his chapter into timelines, namely the 1950s, 1960s, and from 1970 onwards. But however he states the differences of what seemed to be the social problems then, the fundamentals of the ‘problems’ are always the same: poverty, crime, violence and such. Our expectation of a modern society is that they are able to handle these problems and eradicate them. But as sociologist, we know that it is almost impossible to do so. Although we can improve our welfare system to improve the people’s way of life, we must first ask ourselves: What is the desired way of life? The answer looks standard. Equality amongst ethnicities (justice and peace), a society without poverty (wealth), where everyone is happy and contented with life as it is.

 

So why is it so difficult to achieve this ‘desired’ society? Perhaps the problem lies within us individuals. As humans, we are naturally individualistic, always wanting the best for ourselves (and our loved ones). It can also be termed as ‘selfish’. This doesn’t mean that I am generalizing everyone as a selfish being. But given history, like World War One and Two, shows that there are individuals who strive for power. There are certain individuals who seem to think that only their beliefs are the ‘right’ beliefs and that everyone should follow them. Isn’t this a sort of selfishness? But as time went on, we seemed to realize that it just isn’t fair to suppress others against their beliefs. For the Americans, the topic of the inequality of the Blacks was brought up. And for years, the blacks are still being discriminated as the ‘lower class’. Indeed, their status has risen with the influence of pop culture. But it is hard to erase away the thought that they were once the ‘discriminated’ race. The whites would rather see themselves as the superior race. Who wouldn’t? Everyone wants to be the better one. This is especially true in a competitive society, where the best gets it all the benefits. If it is automated superiority, isn’t it all the better?

 

Perhaps this is what is hindering us from creating our ‘perfect’ society. It is improving, no doubt, with the numerous welfare systems that has been put up by the government. But without the support of the people, it would not work out. What I feel is that majority of the people know that they should allow equal rights because fairness is one of the unspoken values of morality. But there are a few who don’t want to share resources; they want to have more power and control over something. Some might tolerate, but those who cannot tolerate it will show it through violence and protest. These are then will be classified as ‘problems’. As what we discussed in lecture, this is the irony in a modernized and globalized society. While we are supposed to be striving for peace and equality, some people might not want to change because of these ‘selfishness’. As an individual, we are not only part of society, we also represent our society. Every race and ethnicity has their own beliefs and culture, in which others might find it disturbing or disagreeable. In the past, when people were less travelled, people of a country thought that they were the center of the world, and that other societies were ‘barbarians’. Even though now we know and learn about other societies, it doesn’t mean we totally accept them. Yes, in Singapore’s context, we make sure that there is religious harmony, but then our freedom of speech is taken away. Even with education and laws implemented, we still have people who threaten our religious harmony by blogging racist posts. This shows that even with globalization, with brings education and more awareness about the need to respect harmony for the better of our economy, we still have these individuals who show the irony of the situation. Our goal now might be to try to understand the root of the problems. Hopefully, we might be able to come up with ways to counter this problem. Solving it totally might be impossible because of human traits, but lessening it will also help our society to lead a better and more fulfilling life.