Introduction
The problem of social inequality is deeply rooted in the history of the US. The segregationist policies of the Jim Crow era and neoliberal governments during the 1980s formed the society with the top 1% receiving the greatest share of the economic pie. It leads to a serious health problem, as studies show that poverty directly affects the deterioration of health (“Poor and in poor health”, 2013). For this assignment, I performed the poverty simulation experiment that gave me a glimpse of what real poverty means. In fact, it was an eye-opening experience because it explained to me why the class system of the modern US is so unjust.
Discussion
The first feature of this experiment was the formation of a deeper understanding of how the American ideology of consumption and pop culture maintains the status quo. The reason is that the modern mainstream media are owned by rich entrepreneurs who welcome how society is organized. Therefore, the media uses a specific ideology that makes people think that the system cannot be changed in a fundamental way to eliminate the multiple inequalities. It was described by the famous political philosopher Kark Marx as “false consciousness” (“Sociology”, 2016, p. 258). In addition, the key term to describe the simulation experience is economic inequality (“Sociology”, 2016). One can open the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and see how many people there are from the US. At the same time, there are no people in this list from Nordic countries because their governments promote the principles of a classless society.
Conclusion
Finally, when I tried to research the market for people with a low economic starting position, there were highly limited opportunities to find a job with a decent salary. It means there is low social mobility in American society for the poorest people because they cannot afford university and college tuition fees (“Sociology”, 2016). Therefore, this experience of exploring poverty was quite instructive from a sociological perspective.
References
Poor and in poor health. (2013). Institute for Research on Poverty. Web.
Sociology: Understanding and changing the social world. (2016). University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.