What percentage of the total wealth do you think should rightly go to the richest 20 percent, the poorest 20 percent, and each quintile in between?

Words: 70
Pages: 1
Subject: Premium Writing

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Instructions: Please review the Reflection Paper Guidelines and Rubric BEFORE completing this paper. It is important to recognize that a title page (this page should be at the beginning of your paper and a completely separate page from the body of your paper), double-spacing (either Arial or Times New Roman 12 pitch font), and a minimum of 10 paragraphs are required. You must respond to all prompts. A minimum of two references/citations are required. Two reference are required and you can use additional references if you would like. This paper has only one part.

Overview: Many like to think that in the United States, everyone has an equal opportunity to experience success. Children are taught that they control their own destiny. But Chapter 6 points out that depending on our structural position and social identities, we may exercise our agency (the ability to exercise our own will) or face constraints while chasing our dreams.

Chapter 6 explained social institutions and the interlocking framework of the social institutions that form our social structure. The chapter introduced the term, institutional discrimination, explaining that often social institutions are designed in such a way as to persistently favor some people over others thereby creating social stratification, or the sorting of social groups into enduring hierarchies. Some individuals gain advantage as a result of social stratification while others experience disadvantage. Society does not need discriminatory individuals to produce discriminatory outcomes. This social inequality can be caused by both social institutions as well as interpersonal discrimination.

Chapters 7, 8, and 9 each explored a type of social inequality; economic, racial/ethnic, and gender. Chapter 7 covered the distribution of wealth in America along with the prehistory of economic inequality and asked you to consider when economic inequity is unfair. Chapter 8 emphasized residential segregation and how it facilitates inequality and harm to society through the unjust treatment of people of color. Chapter 8 further noted that residential segregation is also part of how societies deliver substandard education and criminal punishment to specific populations. Chapter 9 examined the organization of the family and workplace and how these institutional organizations provide advantages to men over women and masculine people over feminine ones. The focus of this paper is to continue exploring economic, racial and ethnic, and gender inequality in the U.S.

Review this website:
https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Sociology/Cultural_Sociology_and_Social_Problems/Race_and_Ethnic_Relations_in_the_U.S.%3A_An_Intersectional_Approach/01%3A_Introduction_to_Race_and_Ethnic_Relations/1.05%3A_Social_Stratification_and_Intersectionality

Prompts (you must address these prompts in your paper):
1. The textbook discusses a study and provides a chart entitled, Figure 7.4 The Actual Distribution of Wealth Compared to What Americans Think It Is and Would Like It to Be (see p. 188), in which a nationally representative survey of Americans were asked to make a guess as to the distribution of wealth in the United States and then describe an ideal distribution of wealth. Think about your own ideal distribution of wealth.
a) What percentage of the total wealth do you think should rightly go to the richest 20 percent, the poorest 20 percent, and each quintile in between? How do your answers compare to the nationally representative survey and the actual distribution of wealth today?
b) The original estimate is about ten years old. Do you think Americans have become more tolerant of wealth inequality since or less? Why?
c) Lastly, how does the current structure of the U.S. economy preserve and even strengthen the advantages of the wealthy?

2. Residential segregation involves the sorting of different kinds of people into separate neighborhoods facilitating unequal distribution of the benefits and harms of society.
a) Discuss how residential segregation has harmed people of color. Identify some specific consequences that people of color have experienced as a result of residential segregation.
b) Explain how the educational system advantages members of some racial and ethnic groups and disadvantages others.
c) What are some observations about race and ethnicity at either your high school or college that stand out to you? Consider these questions (you do not have to answer them all, just think about them to guide your response) when responding to 2.c:
· Was your high school diverse?

· Were friendship groups integrated?

· Did people belonging to different racial and ethnic groups participate in the same activities, were they placed in the same classes, did they hang out in the same parts of the school?

· Were teachers and administrators quicker to forgive or punish depending on students’ racial or ethnic characteristics? Did this vary according to the other social identities and social positions held by students?
· Upon reflection, was your school racially and ethnically segregated? If so, how might that have contributed to unequal outcomes?
3. While societal ideologies are changing to some extent regarding gender, the traditional beliefs of work as a man’s world and home as a woman’s place still influence some of the experiences that men and women have as employees and as family members.
a) Explain how work is a gendered institution. How is the workplace organized so that it often benefits men over women? What are some of the consequences to men and women as a result?
b) Explain how family is a gendered institution. How is the family organized so that it often benefits men over women? What are some of the consequences to men and women as a result?
c) What is the division of labor you witnessed most often in your family of origin or orientation? Did individuals in these relationships seem satisfied with the arrangement? What type of division of labor do you desire in your current or future relationships?