Social Stratification Vs United States

Resources are finite and limited, therefore a society needs to develop strategies for distribution of such resources to its citizens. A universal strategy for distribution of resources is ranking members in a society and developing class systems that regulate the rights and resources available for members. These classes require a method of distinguishing between the members of each class, and the higher classes often develop the framework in which people are judged. These parameters are often created around concrete easily attainable qualities that can be assigned and observed through simple processes. Unlike the United States, the Netherlands has a more egalitarian approach to economic distribution and access to resources. Therefore, the

The United States is proudly a capitalist country, focusing on the economic factor of its system. Understanding social stratification is difficult in America because of the perception of the United States as a place for freedom and equality. The very essence of the American culture is the idea that everyone can be whatever they want therefore any attempt to create a set impenetrable barrier between classes would be fought against as antithetical to the American

Meritocracy is the idea that those who work hard will get their just reward, be it money, power, or status. This belief is propagated in the conception of the American Dream and its message that wealth, power, and status is available for anyone willing to work in the American capitalist system. This American Dream allows a system of stratification that is internally regulated by its citizens through comparing their lives to an idealized “standard” American life. This creates an easy judgement scale that is destructive to the current lower class and benefits those of the upper classes. Instead of the government or system dictating who exists within certain classes the people themselves identify others within certain classes. Conceptually the idea of a meritocracy seems to work, but in reality it is more of a justification of the divisions of class labor and economical benefit. The characteristics of the American meritocracy is the focus on a rewards based system that is economically linked. Those who have more money and better jobs are on the higher scale of the system. The fatal flaw of this is that it assumes two things, it assumes that all wealth is based directly off work done, and secondly that every reward or lack of one is deserving. It then creates the justification for more