Example Of Inequality Analysis

Carlos Diaz
Peter Hart-Brinson
SOC 101.501
November 25, 2014
Analysis of Inequality
Inequalities surround our lives like the crows over a carcass. They make up our identity no less than the color of our eyes, contour of our mouth, or freckles on the face. In the same way, we may be equipped with inequalities that may both advantage or disadvantage us. I choose to continue this analysis on the basis of what has offered me the most experience to present; my socioeconomic advantage. Coming from a family of five children and being the first born son, comes with a burden of expectations not to mention the extended pressure of my mother’s predisposed legacy for me. Let me explain. My mother comes from a long line of wealthy real estate and vineyard
owners from the port city on the southern region of France, known as Bordeaux. On my mother’s side, all prior ancestors and immediate family members have partaken in either the wine or real estate affairs of the family business. Generation down to my family and I become 15th generation, first borne male expected to carry on this tradition. Maintaining focus on the concept of socioeconomic advantage however, it becomes clear how this has developed into an inequality with leveraging abilities. Provided with a brief genealogy of my family, an important component to understanding my present situation, I can now effectively talk about how wealth has affected my life. At an early age I was given privileges and advantages that were unseen, coming down to my prematurity. Since my parents were both immigrants from France (mother) and Spain (father), they chose to have me born at the world renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. After being born, my parents decided to enroll me in private schools with a preselected curriculum often influenced by parents pertinent to the “course of action,” they had of their kids. When I was four, I moved to France to live with my grandmother who thought schooling in a foreign school would be beneficial to my future. Here, I was constantly advantaged in educational endeavors which have benefited me to date, benefices which I will describe later on. When I was seven, I returned from France faced with a whole new culture, mine was taken from me early on, the birth of my brother, and my parents moving into another house in Austin, Minnesota. Here is where the list of advantages, all stemming from the support of wealth, are obvious. Since the age of seven until high school I have attended private schooling. This has given me an arguably more rigorous academia than the public schools in my town. Next, I have been privileged to grow up in more conservative, well ordained neighborhoods despite having the more impoverished areas down a few blocks. This is clear privilege when doing comparative analysis, but something again innate. For me this meant a lot.
This meant having cleaner neighborhoods free of violence, drugs, racism, and even deaths in a city not considered as one of the most family friendly. As a result, seeing this my mom decided to move yet again when I started high school, expanding her business at the same time, and creating a new environment for me. I attended public school but to my surprise with students of all sorts of economic backgrounds, however, most in the upper middle class. I was able to do this, move whenever my mother saw fit, live in nice neighborhoods, and engage in extracurricular with ease, because of my mother’s ability to maintain her wealth. What allowed her to do this however lies in an economic system with varying points of
perception.
Capitalism is my identified social constructed structure that has allowed me to grow up in the manner that I did. Formally, capitalism is defined by the leading financial education site, Investopedia, as “A system of economics based on the private ownership of capital and production inputs, and on the production of goods and services for profit” (Capitalism). As I previously mentioned. capitalism is a structure that is defined according to a point of perception, that is who is doing the defining and where are they coming from. Here you find mixed responses such as, “why some groups in society are more disadvantaged than others...asking questions of [wealth] stratification” (240) and corporate monopoly and oligarchy introduced by Dalton Conley as occurring when, “corporations turn their backs on social responsibility” (562). On the other point of perception we have a structure defined by prominent economist Richard Wolff as, “Perfect competition,” and “optimal allocation of resources” which most of those owning the means of productions might align with (7). For us, capitalism has caused my mother to establish and expand her business in an economic system that rewards expansion and hard work. This causality, allowed through the structure of economics, is my declaration that has most significantly allowed us to maintain our families’ socioeconomic standing. After all, without the existence of this privilege, my mother would not be able to engage in her business affairs that ultimately trickle down to how it affects and has affected me and my decisions.
Just how heavily this structure has impacted my life is significant to understanding it as a structure that promotes agency.
This section is quite easy for me to identify as the ability for my family to benefit economically, through free-market capitalism, has shaped every decision in my past. The decision to attend private schools, study abroad, and even my undergraduate decisions are all a direct factor affected by this structure. Specifically, I offer the example of how this affected my choices for my undergraduate career. When applying to colleges, my mother said to not focus on the cost of the school, but rather on the integrity and notoriety of the school. As a result, I applied to a majority of the Ivy Leagues in the system through the CommonApp process, one application that is then distributed to the selected schools in the system. Had it not been for the financial freedom of choice, a direct link to my families socioeconomic standing which itself stems from capitalism, I would not have been able to simply select my course of study. Recently I was given the privilege of being accepted into Princeton University in New Jersey for a preselected master’s program. I feel extremely honored and privileged however that I will be able to do so without any debt having the financial support of my family. Again something I would never think possible without that economic
backing.
Given my personal account, experiences, interests and goals for myself I am able to project an action which I will take in order to maintain my inequality. Partly because it is expected of me, but also because I am interested, I will choose to continue in my family’s business affairs. This decision is my agency and because of it I am going to be able to continue a family business that will continue to offer jobs to others, contribute to the local economies of where we operate, and continue to offer the products and services that we promote. This decision will in retrospect affect the structure of capitalism through its promotion. As long as I am able to practice in a free market I will be able to continue to the family business. In a larger scope, this will affect future family generations and offer an example to an economy that promotes competition. Since I choose to maintain the structure that leads to my inequality, I also hope to allow others to follow suit. Through the expansion, I am hopeful of the jobs, and economic contributions I will be able to have a hand in for the prospective and prosperous future.
Works Cited
"Capitalism Definition | Investopedia." Investopedia. Investopedia, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Conley, Dalton. You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking like a Sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. Print. P. 240,562.
Wolff, Richard D., and David Barsamian. Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism. San Francisco, CA: City Lights, 2012. Web. P. 7.