SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

  Six policies to reduce economic inequality  Following the Inequality Policy Brief, here are six ways to minimize the rising economic inequality prevalent in the United States. Haas Institute Director john a. powell discusses why these policies will work in slowing the growth in inequality.  Almost three years to the date since Occupy Wall Street first raised the consciousness of Americans about the wide economic disparities between the richest one percent versus the 99 percent of U.S. earners, new Federal Reserve data confirms that wealth and income inequality in the U.S. is accelerating. Toward this goal, researchers from the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley point to the following six evidence-based policy solutions that can have a positive effect on reversing rising inequality, closing economic disparities among subgroups and enhancing economic mobility for all: 1. Increase the minimum wage. Research shows that higher wages for the lowest-pai...

“ What is particularly worrying in India’s case is that economic inequality is being added to a society that is already fractured along the lines of caste, religion, region and gender.” While India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is also one of the most unequal countries. Inequality has been rising sharply for the last three decades. The richest have cornered a huge part of the wealth created through crony capitalism and inheritance. They are getting richer at a much faster pace while the poor are still struggling to earn a minimum wage and access quality education and healthcare services, which continue to suffer from chronic under-investment. These widening gaps and rising inequalities affect women and children the most. Let's look at the numbers 1%     The top 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the total national wealth. 73% of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest 1%, while *670 million Indians who comprise the poorest half o...

  Caste systems are closed social stratification systems in which people inherit their position and experience little mobility. Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines some or all elements of endogamy, hereditary transmission of occupation, social class, social identity, hierarchy, exclusion, and power. Caste as a closed social stratification system in which membership is determined by birth and remains fixed for life; castes are also endogamous, meaning marriage is proscribed outside one’s caste, and offspring are automatically members of their parents’ caste. Although India societies and mainly Hinduism is commonly associated with caste systems, this system can be seen in many different parts of the world and in many different cultures.  The word "Castas" was first used in the 16th Century in the colonial Spain in regions of South America and Central America.  In India the word Caste was first used by the Portuguese in the 17th Century. HINDUISM: C...