I came across a 2020 quote from Damian Barr that is incredibly thought-provoking. He said, “We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm. Some are on super-yachts. Some have just the one oar.”
When he penned those lines, it was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the stark inequities in healthcare were evident across the nation and around the world. Questions at the forefront of our minds included who could afford to jump the testing and vaccination lines. Which families had good internet service and multiple computers so that ALL of their kids could work from home during regular school hours? Who was an “essential worker” and had to risk their life because their minimum wage job meant they could not afford to stay home? As the pandemic begins to fade in our collective rearview mirror and we speed toward (fingers crossed) happier and healthier days, Barr’s quote still holds true and gives us an opening to consider social stratification, a system in which categories of people are ranked in a hierarchy.
In any given society, there are extremes of rich and poor. Regardless of which country you are talking about, those at the top are part of the upper class, a category of people who maintain the highest status and resources within a society. Western sanctions against Russia over their invasion of Ukraine have highlighted the efforts by the richest Russians to hide their wealth and avoid economic sanctions. On the opposite end of the spectrum are the poor or lower class, the lowest category of people within a social hierarchy. In the United States, 37 million people qualify as lower class. Between these extremes, one finds the middle class, the category of people at the center within a social hierarchy. Even though the term middle class is used in the United States and Russia, it is worth noting that the experience of being “middle class” is relative to each society. For example, the average monthly wage in Russia is the equivalent of $653. By comparison, the average monthly wage in the United States is $3,818. One month’s rent in Russia for a one-bedroom apartment is $260 dollars, or 40 percent of their monthly income. In the United States, that same one-bedroom apartment would cost $843, or 22 percent of an American’s income. Russians spend 27 percent of their income on food. For Americans, that number is just 10 percent. The difference between these figures is an example of global inequality, the stratification that exists between people living in different nations.
Whether people are able to move to a different social position depends on their stratification system being either open or closed. An open system encourages and allows for social mobility. The U.S. class system is an example of an open system. It is worth noting that the opportunities for social mobility in a society can change over time. Historically, the United States allowed slavery, a type of closed stratified system in which slaves and owners exist. By its very definition, slavery is a system that does not allow for social mobility, making it an example of a closed system. Other closed systems include India’s caste system, a type of closed stratified system in which people are designated to a particular social position based on their parents’ status in the society, and the European feudal or estate system, a type of closed stratified system in which wealthy land owners and peasants exist.
