SOC392H5 Lecture Notes - Shoeshiner, Social Inequality
Document Summary
Terrible decade w/ drought everywhere and people had to sell their farms. The family"s farm was taken away and they went to cali as migrant farm workers: street sweepers, shoe shiners. How many distinct occupations do you find in a society. As society become more modern occupational complexity increases. Can explain it by social complexity (not only reason) Some people prefer a political explanation (esp. conflict theorists) There is debate around what is responsible for inequality. Nowadays, most of people"s wealth are in their homes. If you have a business and have 10 trucks, those trucks are you wealth b/c they are expensive. These are all called non-liquid assets cannot buy things w/ them but if you exchange them in for money then they becomes liquid assets. Therefore, you can use money to purchase anything. We live in a world dominated by money transactions. When something is exchanged, money is usually a part of the exchange.