1) How are the lives of the workers in Hanging Tongues representative of the concerns of Marx? What social class are the workers and how are their jobs a reflection of their social status? To start, the work “Hanging Tongues” by William E. Thompson tells the tale of a young man conducting a study on a major beef processing plant. Now, the lives of the workers of this beef processing plant do a great job of representing the concerns of Karl Marx’s view of inequality. In Marx’s view, he states that liberalism is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (the capitalist class) because this class exploited the proletariat (the working class). In the case of “Hanging Tongues” the bourgeoisie are the owner and runners of the beef processing plant and the …show more content…
Now, the tip-making process can be explained from a structural functional viewpoint, a symbolic interactionism viewpoint, and a conflict viewpoint. First, a structural-functional viewpoint may view tipping as a solution to waitresses not being paid enough and that waitresses are so competitive because they have evolved to learn that getting sufficient tips is necessary for survival. This leads to my second point because waitresses weren’t getting paid enough, a structural-functional viewpoint may say that our society came up with the tipping system to fix this problem. Second, a symbolic interactionism viewpoint may say that the idea of tipping is socially constructed and that the waitresses are acting so competitively because of the meaning they assigned to getting tips. It may also say the idea of tipping is limited to America, this is because one of the pillars of the symbolic interactionism viewpoint is that in modern and diverse societies, different groups may put different meanings on the same object. This is even proof of this in the reading because the waitresses state that if a customer does not tip they might assume that they are not from America. Finally, a conflict viewpoint may say that tipping culture is actually beneficial for businesses and actually harmful for the workers. To clarify, these waitresses are busting their tails, so to speak, …show more content…
To begin, the scholars Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Pierre Bourdieu all had different views of social inequality. One of these views best explains the current level of social inequality in today’s society. First, Karl Marx believed that social relations depended on who controlled the primary mode of production. He also believed that there were two classes, the bourgeoisie, and the proletariat. He also wanted a classless society because he believed that liberalism was a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (the capitalist class) because this class exploited the proletariat (the working class). Next, Max Weber thought that no single characteristic could totally define a person’s position within the stratification system. He thought that the following could be used to characterize a person's position: status group: people who have the same prestige or lifestyle. Class: a group of people who have a similar level of wealth or income. Power: the ability to exercise one’s will over others. Finally, Pierre Bourdieu believed in the theory of cultural capital and had three types. First, Objectified cultural capital consists of physical and material objects that a person owns outright or has direct access to. These objects also have symbolic value in that they convey meaning about the status of the owner/buyer/seller. Second,