Critically investigate how social inequalities are upheld in society (Research Paper Sample)

Critically investigate how social inequalities are upheld in society Name Institution Date Introduction Modern human societies are characterized by social inequalities, which harm people’s wellbeing and affect contemporary societies’ economic and political stability. These inequalities are especially reinforced by class systems dividing society into conflicting groups, including the rich and the poor, the working class and the capital owners, and superior racial and ethnic groups versus the minority and marginalized groups. Those on the lower end of this stratification encounter challenges when seeking upward mobility and discrimination in accessing vital societal resources. However, while calls to end social inequalities persist in the modern social, economic, and political landscape, such inequalities persist and continue to adversely impact the stability of modern economic and political ecosystems while impoverishing the wellbeing of disadvantaged populations globally. Among the vices upholding these social inequalities are capitalism (Engels & Marx, 2015) and neoliberalism (Wacquant, 2001; Holmes, 2016). Capitalism upholds social inequalities by intensifying the class struggle between the bourgeois and the proletarians. Under capitalism, the bourgeois retains power over the working class by possessing capital and means of production. The working class is, therefore, perpetually enslaved by the bourgeois, who exploit them for their labor in return for their means of survival. On the other hand, neoliberalism upholds social inequalities by penalizing poverty through criminalization and police brutality against minority and marginalized groups. Also, neoliberalism ignores the disparities between the bourgeois and the working class and assumes that its market-driven economy provides everyone with a level field toward achieving upward mobility. Therefore, this essay borrows from existing research to highlight how social inequalities are upheld by capitalistic and neoliberal forces, which increase class struggle between the rich and the poor, which penalizes poverty and creates an individualistic market-driven economy that treats everyone in society as having the same opportunities towards upward mobility. Bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots has dominated the social policy frameworks in the developed and developing world. The dominating rhetoric in the contemporary political landscape has been directed toward reducing or eliminating social and economic inequalities that affect many people globally. Reducing hunger, food insecurity, gender inequality, fighting poverty, and ensuring every child, regardless of socioeconomic background, has equal access to quality education are some of the significant rhetoric and social policy frameworks that have dominated global conventions. Nonetheless, despite the efforts, social inequalities persist in modern societies. However, this is not new. As emphasized by Grusky (2019), the human condition has always been unequal, with every human society being characterized by different forms of inequalities since the beginning. These inequalities have always ensured that some privileged families or individuals enjoy more prestige, access to power, and resources than others. Thus, current research aims to understand how these stratifications persist in modern society despite efforts to mitigate them. Among the vices that have been found to uphold social inequalities in society include capitalism. Engels & Marx (2015) highlighted that capitalism increases the class struggle between the bourgeois and the proletarian. This class struggle is a major characteristic of social inequalities, as referenced by Hynie et al. (2021) who state that class systems and social class hierarchies are among the cultural institutions that formalize and reinforce social and economic inequalities in society. According to Engels & Marx (2015), entire human history has been a class struggle history, as evidenced by different antagonizing groups that have existed alongside human societies, including the class struggle between enslaved and free persons and other relationships that can be conceptualized as between the oppressor and the oppressed. The ancient feudal society presents an opportunity to observe the social class hierarchies that have dominated human societies, as evidenced by social ranks including enslaved people, plebeians, knights, and patricians of ancient Rome, and the serves, vassals, feudal lords, and apprentices of the Middle Ages (Engels & Marx, 2015). The ruins of these ancient feudal societies provided the framework for the emergence of the modern bourgeois, which reinforces class antagonism. According to Engels & Marx (2015), the modern bourgeois has created new classes, struggles, and avenues of oppression to replace those that existed in the feudal states. However, instead of dividing society into various antagonizing groups, as seen in ancient Rome and the Middle Ages, the modern bourgeois simplified the class struggle by dividing society into two rival camps: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (Engels & Marx, 2015). In the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the bourgeoisie has the upper hand, as it controls the modern market economy, society, and the political establishment. Every relationship that governed the interaction of human beings and which provided the foundation of the ancient feudal society, including family, has been torn down by the bourgeoisie and replaced by money relations. Even the political government, as stated by Engels & Marx (2015), is just another committee established by the bourgeoisie to manage its affairs. Value exchange has replaced personal worth, and Free Trade has been heralded as the only unconscionable freedom that nations and individuals should strive for, which, according to Engels & Marx (2015), is nothing but brutal exploitation veiled by political and religious illusions. Through this free trade, the bourgeoisie has gained control over the world market and positioned it in every corner of the globe. New industries have sprung out and destroyed the old ones that formed the foundation of societies. Resources have been exploited from every part of the globe to fuel the capitalistic demands of the free markets. Every nation has been compelled to adopt civilization in the bourgeoisie image. A new form of exploitation emerges, forcing uncivilized and barbarian nations to rely on the civilized ones, the East to depend on the West, and peasant states to rely on bourgeois nations (Engels & Marx, 2015). Thus, in this relationship, the bourgeois positions itself as the dominant source of social, economic, and political power, which it dispels on individuals and nations willing to become bourgeois. The modern working class is increasingly subjected to market forces and is at the mercy of the bourgeois. Since the bourgeois owns the means of production, the working class is forever enslaved, as they must sell their labor for sustenance. In this bourgeois-dominated world, the working class becomes a commodity exposed to competitive forces and market fluctuations (Engels & Marx, 2015). Further, the working class is exposed to harm and loss due to the increasing use of machines in the workplace. Thus, wages for the working class reduce as they continue to compete with machines. Moreover, with machines in the workplace, labor division increases, which also increases the burden of toil, as the working class is expected to work more for lesser pay to compete with the machine’s productive capacity (Engels & Marx, 2015). Lengthy working hours and more work become the only means for the working class to earn meager wages in a market economy dominated by machines. Therefore, social inequalities are upheld when the working class is at the mercy of the bourgeois, who decide whether they need to hire labor and at what cost. The working class has no power in this relationship other than submitting to the demands and conditions of the bourgeois, who own the means of production and thus control labor. Social inequalities are also upheld by neoliberalism, which creates and penalizes poverty. Bochman (2013) traces the emergence of neoliberalism to the 1930s, following the devastations of the Great Depression of 1929, which was attributed to the lack of state control in the laissez-faire old liberalism capitalism. Following the depression, a new strategy to address major problems was necessary, and neoliberalism was considered the best new liberalism model for preserving the laissez-faire capitalistic markets while adding a new role for a minimal state (Bochman, 2013). Under neoliberalism, the state, which had no specific roles in the old capitalist model, would have minimal roles in maintaining order, protecting private property, and offering protection for the poor (Bochman, 2013). However, neoliberalism works against these functions designed for the state by reinforcing inequality as it maintains order and protects the poor and private property. For instance, according to Feldman (2019), neoliberalism rejects all theories about poverty by placing every individual in society on a level playing field regarding accessing and using free markets. For neoliberalism, the poor are free agents with equal opportunity, like everyone else, to capitalize on free market conditions to improve their socioeconomic status. Thus, everyone is free and equally predisposed to escape poverty in a neoliberal world.  On the other hand, neoliberalism penalizes poverty by establishing harsh treatments that only affect the poor and marginalized communities. This is according to Feldman (2019, p. 342), who states that neoliberalism is responsible for constructing and cementing poverty in society by regarding the poor as “deficient and immoral individuals who do not take full responsibility for t...