Joy Marie Prior
12 February 2010
Sociology 112
Section 4
Homework #4
Question #1
In the United States over 1/3 of the wealth is in the top 1% of the population. Some of the reasons suggested for the distribution of wealth in the United States is investments. The upper class does not simply have a high income, and in some cases it would appear that their actual income is driven from their investments. The example in the book was on page 89 when the author lists ‘corporate stars’ and their personal wealth “$67 million” to Anthony O’Reilly. It is important to consider more than just income when discussing wealth. I can see clearer now how the wealthy stay wealthy, because Anthony O’Reilly’s one year income is enough to keep me happy for my entire life, and if I made that every year what else would I be able to do but to invest it and pass it on to my children because I could reasonably never spend that much in one year. Another ’corporate star’ mentioned on page 89 that really stuck out to me was “Nike’s Phil Knight, who by some estimates regularly receives more compensation than all of this Indonesian workers’ wages combined.”
While I was thinking about the ridicules amount of money this I realized that one of the contributing factors of the high class division in the United States is Globalization. The focus of this passage was to emphasize Phil Knight has a ton of money, but the other part of this quote is that he is paying his Indonesian workers. Notice that he is not paying his Texan, Ohio, or Nevada workers, but specifically his Indonesian workers. Much of the upper class have their labor done outside of the United States and so the money is not going back into the United States people. Not only is the money not going to the American people, but the jobs are not going to the American people. One of the contributing factors to the greater division between the upper and lower class is that the upper class is no longer employing the lower class, because they have international employment.
This was a really shocking chapter for me. On and off I think back to the first day of class when we discussed what we are going to do with our college education to help those around us, and while I was reading this chapter I realized that I am on my way to the top class of the United States social structure. Not that I am there, because I don’t have investments, no one is going to leave me an inheritance, and I have no assets. I am getting a prestige university education though, and automatically that puts me in at least the upper-middle class. It was a little intimidating for me to recognize that I will not always be living off Western Family Mac and Chess. The intimidating fact was not the money, because it is hard for me to imagine that much money. For me the intimidating idea was that I have even with out investments, inheritance, or assets my life can progress because I have opportunity. That made me feel responsible to bring opportunity to others. I can not give people investments, inheritance, or assets, but I can help people to find opportunities.