Biographies Of Hegemony Analysis

Title Economic inequality was created. Lots of factors lead to the long-standing social inequality, such as gender, ethnicity, age, level of education and so on. How would people split up income between the top ten percent and the rest if it were up to them? It depends on which group they belong to. They strive for more benefit for themselves. The growing gap between the upper class and the lower class has been expensive. In “Biographies of Hegemony”, Karen Ho looks into the prevalent ideology named “culture of smartness” and explores the close tie between some of America’s most powerful and prestigious universities and Wall Street firms. Joseph Stiglitz, the author of “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society”, is concerned about

Ho proposes a possible explanation on why so many elite students scramble for Wall Street’s job opportunities that “Those most enamored of, or dependent on, their putative membership in ‘the cream of the crop’ seek ways to maintain and continue the high status to which they have become accustomed, especially as graduation looms near”(179). Regarded as the most intelligent and promising students, students at elite universities are accustomed to receiving praise and respect from others. With the date of graduation approaching, they desire to sustain the high social status by working on Wall Street which satisfies their fastidious demand for not only financial security but also prestigious social status. Expecting to sustain high status is not restricted to only elite college students. Similarly, Stiglitz declares that “Those with power used that power to strengthen their economic and political positions, or at the very least to maintain them. They also attempted to shape thinking, to make acceptable difference in income that would otherwise be odious”(395). In economic and political fields, people who are in charge take advantage of the authority, in other words, the dominance to consolidate and bolster their superiority. They influence (or manipulate, to some extent) the public’s thoughts and convey the idea that the difference in income is reasonable and justifiable to the public. Both Ho and Stiglitz mention people’s desire to maintain and strengthen the status. To sustain the high status, people engaged in economics, politics, and many other fields, make an effort to shape people’s thoughts, influence the culture, and gradually transform the notion of success. Take Wall Street as an example. It is depicted as the extension of hyper elite universities, a place full of the smartness and most ambitious people. Enveloped in an atmosphere of “the culture of success”, where people are