Hey, Remember What Structural-Functionalism Say About Social Stratification and Inequalities?
October 26th, 2009 by SocProf and tagged Corporatism, Social Inequalities, Social Stratification, Social Theory, Sociology
According to this time-honored theory that is often wrong and yet we still have to teach, inequalities and greater wealth at the top of the social distribution are reflection of the sacrifices some individuals make to get educated and take more functionally significant positions in society. So, Dean Baker asks the right question in the title of his op-ed:
These obscene remunerations were not reflections of talent or skills, obviously. They were also not rewards for risk-taking behavior since the risks are taken with other people’s money and the “too big to fail” rule pretty much guarantees government bailouts.
No, what we have here is the product of the conjunction of wealth and power and the ultimate result of the corporatization of the state.
What we see is a complete disconnect not only between performance and social value but between cultural norms that most people are expected to abide by, especially for the most vulnerable (workfare for low pay, prisonfare for no pay) versus falsely risky sociopathic behavior rewarded and treated as so socially significant that it has to be preserved (with loads of public money) at all costs.
So, it’s just the logical conclusion of a class warfare that started in the late 1970s and pretty much reach one of its final points now: to the victors belong the spoils.
Posted in Corporatism, Economy, Social Inequalities, Social Stratification, Social Theory, Sociology | No Comments »
