Central Texan Sustainability

Our health is everything to us, whether we’re young or old, white or black. An individuals health could determine a lot of factors in their overall life time satisfaction. However, in our capitalist society healthcare has been turned into a business. With universal healthcare being lauded by conservatives, we have developed an issue of some individuals being left without adequate healthcare due to the fact that they are unable to pay the outrageous premiums some insurance companies charge. The rate of lack of coverage, as well as the reasoning behind it have been provided by the Central Texan Sustainability Project with a survey of Texas citizens. Overall the information given by the Central Texan Sustainability Project on the state of healthcare

According to Marx society was divided into two classes that were in eternal conflict in the battle for resources, or as Marx coined; “the means of production”. The first class were the bourgeoisie, which Marx described as the sole owners of the means of production as well as the media. The bourgeoisie used their power and influence to exploit the second class, which Marx called the proletariat which consisted of all the workers of the world. Marx rejected the idea that the wealthy pulled themselves from their own bootstraps, which he called “false consciousness” and in return coined the term “class consciousness”, which referred to a persons awareness of their own social status, especially in terms of class conflict. Overall, Marx concluded that social order is created maintained by domination and power. More so, to Marx money was everything. Money was the access to not only the means of production but many other lavish things, including healthcare. Marx would describe the meaning behind these graphs as the bourgeoisie using their wealth to ensure themselves to a longer and easier life, whilst the proletariat would have less access to healthcare, and thus be caught up in trying to keep themselves healthy rather than becoming “class conscious” and creating the worldwide worker’s revolution that Marx once dreamed

Rather than forces of society being in conflict each other, Durkheim argues that individual parts of society work together to establish order and balance. As well, functionalism emphasizes the influence that various societal institutions have on both the individual and the society as a whole, whether it be family, school or another major societal institution. Functionalism could be taken as the anti-thesis to Marx’s conflict theory, as it stresses the importance of cohesion and conformity in creating a harmonious and functional society, rather than trying to rock the boat. In order to explain the three graphs in an functionalist point of view, I believe Durkheim would conclude that the reasoning behind the healthcare inequality is simply the way society is meant to function. Both healthcare providers and the ill perform a role in society that keep it functioning well. The doctors providing well being to the sick, whilst the sick provide a job to the doctors. And the reason being that it’s usually lower income individuals performing these roles would be because the roles wealthier individuals already