SY101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Gary Becker, Human Capital, Meritocracy

• School: WLU
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SY101
• Professor: Greg Bird

Document Summary

Income distribution in canada: human capital theory, functionalist theory of stratification. Human capital theory (1964): the abilities, skills, knowledge, and experience that an individual or a group of individuals possesses. Human capital must be nurtured through training and education. The more investment in human capital, the better the rewards (higher productivity for the society or higher personal income for an individual). We al(cid:449)ays (cid:373)ake sa(cid:272)rifi(cid:272)es for our future (cid:271)ut they"re al(cid:449)ays i(cid:374)(cid:448)esti(cid:374)g i(cid:374) hu(cid:373)a(cid:374) (cid:272)apital, so(cid:272)iety expectation. Critiques of human capital theory: presumes that everyone is rational and that every rational being would think this way, assumes everyone competes in an open and fair labour market & that everyone has equal access to resources. Stratification system: a consequence of collective judgements by which society evaluates the (cid:449)orthi(cid:374)ess of a perso(cid:374)"s o(cid:272)(cid:272)upatio(cid:374)al positio(cid:374) about its importance or its contribution to the collectivity. 2 determinants of occupational ranking: differential functional importance, differential scarcity of personal.