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The main reason why I am taking this class is because I need the units. However, I also think learning about certain behaviors that develop through societies and communities is quite interesting. Sociology in my opinion seems to be an interesting topic.

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Henslin compared sociology to the other social sciences to show the difference and what it focuses on. I noticed that sociology seems to look at everything the other social sciences would look at, but it looks at it from a societal point of view. How a community of people or even an individual's behavior and interactions are affected by the society that they live in.

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After reading this, my first thought was obviously that this society was very disturbing. Especially, the "holy-mouth-men". At first with the diction of supernatural and evils. I was thinking this is really odd that they would have their teeth removed or even worsened because it was a social norm. But then I started to reflect on our society and were literally go to a dentist and get our teeth removed. And we, Americans are fixated on having straight teeth and fake ones. Reading this made me imagine what it's like to perceive another culture based on yours.

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This chapter generally showed how sociology is applied. I thought it was cool in terms of how deep sociology looks into why jeans are so popular in our society. It mentioned sociological imagination where personal issues are connected with social structures and it's context. Thus, expanding the understanding of why certain personal issues occur. It also mentioned how to understand to consumer culture, they'd have to look at the historical context of when it started and how it developed overtime.

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From my understanding. Sociologists are a combination of all the social sciences but they solely focus on how social structure and culture will affect a community or individual's behavior or psyche. They try to look at things that aren't always noticed. Things that naturally causes cultures to think other cultures are weird or the knowledge that one culture know and the other doesn't.

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In the beginning, I was given a different understanding but similar to what sociological imagination is compared to the other textbook. Both definitions though involve societal structures and historical circumstances affecting a person. After reading this though, it showed how a person should learn to implement sociological imagination into their lives to understand why they have been given a "role" in society. To understand oneself in how they understand and functions due to the influences of their own society. Having knowledge of your own culture and how it is constructed allows you to understand yourself more and potentially neglect the "change" that occurs all the time in society.

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From what I recall, the first thing I bought was Lego sets when I was very young. I was happy at the time because I loved to build Lego sets and the money came from my mother. I was fairly satisfied and I know I was influenced by the videos I watched when I was younger. I saw a lot of stop-motion videos made with Lego figures and it made me want to have the experience of having them. My age was obviously a factor as well because every other young boy would build legos as well.

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It was cool to be introduced to two new theories. That being Marxist theory which was commodity fetishism and the Durkheimian tradition. Marxist theory talks about how capitalism has affected people and their connections with food as in they are unaware of where their food sources come from and therefore exploited. Durkheimian focuses on how societies are connected through food, in terms of all the terms such as norms, deviance, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. I learned on the lecture and this just further implanted the definitions in my head.

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First, before any actions are taken I would have to think about what makes a teacher a “good” teacher. There are many characteristics that would make a teacher “good”. Such as, the class environment that they create. As well as do they make the curriculum engaging and somewhat interesting. Another is do they do effectively conceptualize topics to students and give them enough time to learn the topics. To determine that, I would first conduct a survey for students where they rate their teacher on certain characteristics from very bad to very good. For example, “does my teacher conceptualize topics in the syllabus well?” And they would have a range from very bad, bad, neutral, good, very good. After the data is collected on the overall score for each characteristic of the teacher the students would take a standardized test for that class. Further demonstrating if the teacher is good in their role as a teacher.

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Prescribed: I am a brother, a son, and a U.S Citizen.

Achieved: I am a college student, an athlete, and a gamer.

As a college student my role is to make sure I’m going to all my lectures and making time to complete assignments and study outside of lectures. My role is to also respect my peers and professors. To not be late to class and to try to not turn assignments in late.

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When I was in middle school, I remember when the only friend I had moved away. At that point, I had no one to hangout with during recess and what not. The popular kids used to bully me all the time and I wanted to fit in with them. Eventually, I had group projects with them and I would change how I would act and they started to like me. I then started to become part of their friend group. This is where I started becoming somewhat a bad person because I did things they told me to do just to fit in with them. When I reflect on things I’ve done in the past, it’s like how did I even make that choice. Obviously eventually I found confidence within in myself and parted ways from them. But I can see how much I conformed just to fit in with them. Because I was so desperate to have friends that I chose to do things that put me in negative situations. This really shows how easy it is for us to conform without even knowing. It took me two years or so to willingly not care to fit in their group.

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(JCB) Appendix (401-424) Advertisement/Research methods 

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(JCB) Appendix (401-424) Advertisement/Research methods 

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After reading the appendix, I expanded my understanding of the methodological tools that sociologists use for their research. It makes sense that their research heavily prioritizes empirical and qualitative data, as the whole goal is to understand sociological settings, which are factors of characteristics and behaviors. I noticed that if you wanted to conduct research where you wanted to see how variables relate to one another the two terms of deductive reasoning and nomothetic explanations would coincide with one another since it revolves around the idea of applying a theory and seeing whether it is present or not. The same goes for inductive reasoning and idiographic explanation since its generally focused on smaller groups to develop a potential theory that could be applied to the general. Reflecting on ethnography, I assumed this method was for sociologists who wanted to understand unknown cultures for the predominant culture such as native Americans. I definitely think this is the general approach or understanding of what a sociologist does. However, as more methods were shown I saw how they apply variables into research that they want to see how they correlate. Especially in this generation, I would be curious to see how the exposure of women in media ruins insight into young men's perception of love. From my own personal observation, I have noticed how young men and teenagers are very much trapped in lust because of social media and how women expose themselves. It would be cool to conduct a survey or a qualitative interview and see the pattern of responses from their consumption of half-naked women that they see constantly on social media and the internet in general. Overall, reading the appendix gave me more of an understanding of how sociologists use certain methodological approaches to analyze certain attributes or variables to create theories or further prove them.

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29-47: Henslin, Doing Sociological Research

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29-47: Henslin, Doing Sociological Research

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After reading this, the theories explained further expanded my knowledge of the types of theories sociologists try to look for in the category. The three main theories symbolic interactions, functionalism, and conflict theory showed me how theories are created based on the idea of finding behavior within societal systems or communities. I reflected on my family and applied the theories and it all made sense. For example symbolic interactionalism, I thought about how me and my family interact. We are all unique and have different understandings of our experiences, so we all act differently. I thought about how one part of my family is more civil and the other is more "ghetto" and that is just due to our experiences. I then thought about the third theme which everyone in our family chose a path due to the opinion of our family members. I also thought about how families have a functional system that makes a family what it is. Everyone has a role and if it is not fulfilled the family could potentially fall apart which introduces the conflict theory. Similar to (JCB) Appendix of Advertising/Research Methods, it allowed me to understand a sociologist research model even more. I noticed the whole research model is always the same but the only different thing is how you collect the data. This is all based on which method will be more effective to defining your theory or further supporting it.

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10 pieces of clothing and where they were manufactured

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10 pieces of clothing and where they were manufactured

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So, after looking at my clothing. Most of it was either made in southeast Asia or in the U.S., mainly California actually. The reason is that I mainly buy my clothes from start-up brands that have unique graphic designs on their clothing. To me I see the economy improving where people actually will have more jobs because now it is more common for people to start their own brands. Therefore more job opportunities. I think main stream clothes however are just manufactured somewhere such as china and Southeast Asia which means fewer working opportunities on a wide scale. But it is becoming more popular for people to start their own clothings brands.

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63-72: Pager, Would You Hire an Ex-Convict?

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63-72: Pager, Would You Hire an Ex-Convict?

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After reading this study, I first thought it was an affective way to carry out the study to see how incarceration affected a person from getting a job. At first I thought it did not make since to do 150 white pairs and 200 black pairs but the black colored men received less callbacks for their job so it made sense to conduct more test. The results were shocking but not unexpected. The white men had a higher percentage of getting a callback for their applied job whether it was without a crime or with a crime in comparison to the whites. What shocked was that the white men with a criminal record had a slightly higher chance of getting a callback for their applied job in contrast to black men without a criminal record. Being part of this society though I can see why this is happening just by how people perceive the black American community and also how the general black community project themselves. Personally, and the people around me. We have had many bad experiences with the black community whether its work or just regular social interactions and I think that's what creates that sense of prejudice against them. Not that I'm saying it's right but it is a factor to why they find it difficult to assimilate.

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I think when I was in middle school to early staged of highschool. I had a crisis of what I wanted to wear. The reason was that everyone "knew" how to dress in comparison to me. I always wore tapered joggers and some big T-shirts or sweats all the time. I never really had anything "nice" to wear. Over time, I wanted to improve how I dressed to impress others at my school. I first started trying to dress how my girlfriend wanted me to and that really did not project me and I did not enjoy dressing myself up that way. Over time as I started to change what I wore and found my own style which was a major style that people liked seeing. I started to get compliments from people during my later years of high school. I found those purchases to satisfy my desire for belonging because I also believed that's how I should dress as well. People enjoyed how I dressed and I did as well.

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I work at a coffee shop. I am a Starbucks barista and I observe customers all the time since it is part of my job. Typically, most strangers do not interact with one another and mind their own business. However, when it comes to customers the employees there are genuine interactions because there is something that initiates the interaction. For example, ordering a drink and paying. It just becomes natural for a customer and employee to have manners with one another and then it leads to some type of interaction. So the cafe ends up fairly welcoming because of we also greet every single customer and end up interacting with them. Of course, some are less welcoming to us and we don't have genuine interactions it's shorter if anything. The coffee shop I work at favors the customers who have manners and respect what we do. Doesn't matter the age, class, or race, instead more of how respectful and patient the person is. When a person has a rude demeanor and demands a lot it becomes more difficult to interact with them and to cater to them. Most of the time you start to develop and associate those characteristics based on their looks and "energy" they give off.

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Since I work at Starbucks I'll just talk about that. So, of course, I don't agree with everything from Starbucks but there are some cool factors within that corporation. Once hired like I was, every barista is taught manners and the idea of connecting with every customer. They have this strong idea about making "moments right" for every customer who comes to get a coffee. With that, I think it teaches the community and returning customers to become more kind to others and have more genuine connections with others. This idea of connecting with others is definitely common sense but it's hardly implemented or reinforced I would say. Since we are being paid to do so it makes it more seen to others. However, Starbucks also has some factor where that lure customers in such as their app where they have special deals for them. This causes many customers to have an "addiction" to Starbucks and some customers develop a power trip with employees. Even though, their ideology of creating a better social environment through connecting and not escalating problems. It also allows for some to take advantage and "walk over" the employees. In those cases, it allows people to develop experiences of who to be weary of and implicitly alienate.

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Well, today the minimum wage for fast food in California is now 20$. In terms of unionization, I can see it being encouraged especially when you feel like you're being overworked for what you are being paid. Fast food is actually a physically and emotionally draining job which I can see why workers would want more benefits and better working conditions. However, what could discourage them is that this is not the path of their career and it is only temporary. Therefore, there is no reason to put in extra effort for a job that won't be permanent or long. Another is the risk of being fired because it's very easy to be fired from a fast-food job especially if they know that you speak negatively of the corporate. But if there are very large campaigns where it's unlikely they will be fired because it would be difficult to replace all the workers than I could see it being encouraged.

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Chapter 10 Branding/The Self and Social Interaction

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Chapter 10 Branding/The Self and Social Interaction

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After reading this, it gave me a more in-depth understanding of symbolic interactionism. When the chapter mentioned Cooley's looking-glass self. I thought about myself and how others perceived me. At first, I thought about how watching shows may have influenced my discipline in areas that I take seriously but after the mention of the looking-glass self. I remembered how positive and negative perceptions of me affected my development as the person I am today. I remember how people used to say I was very blunt, weak, rude, and weird. These negative perceptions made me want to change who I was and I started to slowly develop into a person who was a little less blunt. Not as rude to people and understood what not to say and I also started to train myself to become stronger. And it's part of my lifestyle. these negative perceptions drove me to want to become a better person in general and I thought it might've been just for myself, maybe it is now but back then it was for other people. As I got older I noticed people complimented me more even when I had setbacks in life they always told me I was hardworking and I could get through challenges. I now uphold myself to many things with consistency. Another thing mentioned was Goffman's perspective on the self which was dramaturgical. To me, I just perceived this as conformity. Like if I'm at work I switch my behavior that is seemed "appropriate" for work. I'm more compliant and kind to customers and my peers. If I'm around friends I'm a little more unhinged and act in ways I know they'll enjoy being around. Same for my family or school. It's an unspoken rule but you don't realize it till you genuinely think about it. Social settings and groups impact how we act and what we portray to others. I also got to see how consumer culture impacts our state of self. The way we create our lifestyle is through consumption. "What will I buy that will further define who I am and what I like to do". It made me think about the things I like to buy and what I consume. I'm a recreational person and I also like to wear things that look aesthetic within those disciplines. For example, at the gym, I wear a style that is considered aesthetic and complimenting of my physique while I workout. This shows how I want to show others and myself that I've been dedicated and show that I'm a consistent gym goer. Another is volleyball and martial arts. I buy high-quality equipment but that also looks nice. It gives the idea that he is not a rookie or he's been in the "game" for a while. Or even technology, I like games, and I have built my own personal computer. So, I consume a lot of accessories for set up. All these items and accessories define who I am and what I do which I never really thought about.

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After reading this chapter, I constantly reflected on the people in my life and the things that they consume. With the idea of conspicuous consumption, I noticed the upscale emulation that many people practiced in my life. For example, my aunt-in-law wears a lot of luxury brands. However, she does not work and my uncle works two jobs that are low pay. With the influence of new consumerism, she's created a habit of always dressing with luxury clothing brands to feel as if she was part of a high social class. Ironically enough though she lacks in other areas of cultural capital taste such as speech, intellectualism, and education. This is because she was naturalized as an adult. So, I believe this was her way to fit in. Furthermore, I saw and applied how class inequalities are maintained through consumption habits. Being a son who was raised up in a lower class into a middle class. I could reflect on differences in lifestyles and oddly enough I still find myself not being able to entirely fit in with the middle class. As I recall when I was younger I would always play outdoors or play games. But as I grew up with my mother gaining social mobility, we started to travel more and I also started doing an organized sport like volleyball and going to wrestling clinics. I noticed a shift in my life where I started to do things that involved more money and people could relate less to me. Middle-class citizens afford lifestyles that involve more money making lower-class citizens struggle to fit into that position. Lastly, after reading about the coffee paradox and how Starbucks is an expression of conspicuous consumption. I could see how the higher class indirectly takes advantage of the lower class. They consume coffee which is a symbol of sophistication, which the coffee is attained by the exploitation of the lower working class to produce it. They exploit them by acquiring high-quality coffee beans but giving them low wages for it. I can see how ethical consumption comes into play which honestly can make a big difference especially if there's a shift overtime. This would allow the lower class to not be exploited for their work to please the higher class.

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How has social class affected my life and choices?

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How has social class affected my life and choices?

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As I mentioned in the previous post, I ended up experiencing social mobility. From when I was born to about 14 years of age, I was part of the lower class. My mom was a single mother and she was taking care of four of us. She was nationalized and only had a highschool diploma. So at first she spent a couple years of my life as a warehouse worker and we lived in either a duplex, quadruplex, or triplex. We moved around a lot for better rent. Reflecting on my lifestyle, I didn’t really get to do much, I just spent my time playing games or with family. At that time most of my family if not all was also part of the lower class as well. So we all lived very close to one another or together during certain periods. I always found our family eating together or going to the Angel Cruz park to sell food. I also found myself around family that were associated with gangs. Reflecting on everything I learned in this course. I can see how social class really does affect behavior and lifestyle. At that time we were more focused on the present and spending time together. Eventually as my mother got a better job and a better wages over the years we moved into the middle class. And I never thought about it enough but our lifestyle did change. We traveled to other countries often and had vacations in general. My mom offered and let me play in organized sports like volleyball and wrestling. Overall I just started to have a whole different lifestyle. We started to eat healthier, people we were surrounded by had different personalities and lifestyles as well. One huge thing I noticed is my mom started to somewhat disassociate with groups of people that are part of the lower class as well. Overall, I started to see more options for me open and my mom even told me I could pursue whatever I want and I think that’s because we’re more comfortable now. I try not to be around people that aren’t to full of themselves but sometimes I see people of the middle class talk down often of the lower class even my mom because her gain of social mobility. I started to be told that they made the choice to be part of the lower class and to an extent I believed it considering my family being part of it.

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After reading this, I understand how a functionalist sees the role of poverty. I also agree that the United States system is necessary for the poor as Gans listed. When you actually think about your environment it's shocking how large of the population is living in poverty. Almost everyone I know works in a low-wage job that is considered "dirty work" but it has to be done. A lot of jobs are needed to be completed and its done by the poor. An example is warehouse jobs. I know a large number of people in my life who are working a warehouse job because they don't have too many choices due to being in poverty but also it's one of the best-paying jobs in respect to what they can apply for. And that's where I can see owners or the affluents paying low wages to make the maximum profit. The middle class and the top of the hierarchy can take advantage of the poor because they know that there aren't many options if they don't have some type of degree or certificate for a higher status position. Since the majority of the population. One thing I don't agree with is conventional norms. I believe that the middle class also helps uphold conventional norms but in terms of what is considered bad behavior. I can see why they look towards the poverty population to display what not to do because of the high crime rates or some with bad work ethics. Honestly after reflecting about how our society cannot function without poverty, I agree. I see that it promotes more occupational growth because of the ability to aid the poor and how they help prolong economic usefulness by basically buying scraps from the rich. To me, it's almost unavoidable to prevent poverty. A large practice to decrease poverty is the desire for social mobility.

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383-394: Morris and Grimes, Moving up...

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383-394: Morris and Grimes, Moving up...

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Being part of the working class as I grew up I noticed similar encouragement and expectations as other sociologists stated. My mom was so adamant about me doing well in school that she even put me in a free program in hopes that it would allow me to have more resources. The idea of doing better than her. She always told me to get an education and get a good job that would give me money. She didn't really guide me however but assumed the education system would help me instead just as other sociologists stated in their experiences. I think it's due to the fact that some parents also lack information on the education system and how to help guide their kids to get to a certain goal. As I grew older my mom never really said much or helped me. In terms of pursuing the American dream, I have seen both perspectives where some people seek class mobility and some believe there are only some jobs that they can work while being part of the working class. For example, I have one friend and his family cannot pay for his schooling and barely get by with rent. He was influenced by his mother to pursue the "American Dream" still. In which he used his resources to go to university to pursue the degree that he wants. On the other hand, I have one friend where her family discouraged her from going to school because it cost too much. In which economic capital influenced what she could do. She then believed only working a warehouse job was the only way in which she would give up on school. I think one of the most leverage that can help a person gain class mobility is social capitalism. Every person that I've seen who's part of the working class has some type of connection that is aiding them to grow their economic capitalism. I believe that the more quality connections a person has, it allows the more opportunities for a person to change their lifestyle. So I could see how discrimination or discouragement from others could prevent social mobility. Such as ethnicity and gender play a role. Generally, you'll see people associate the Asian community to be hard workers and smart which naturally gives them leverage to have better relationships which could give them a high probability of a higher position in their career in respect to black Americans where people tend to associate with them as lazier. Overall, I see how the three forms of capital determine a person's gain of class mobility.

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Reading this one was a little difficult. It felt like I was reading something out of a book. This shows how efficient the upper class systems are that keeps distanced from the working and middle class. There were a lot of systems I wasn’t familiar with systems such as the social register. It’s like they’ve created their own society within the larger society. It makes sense why I really never hear about the upper class and that’s because they’ve distanced themselves from all the other social classes. And in terms of them keeping their advantage of us they have built education systems meant only for the upper class. Families are able to ensure their children are gaining the top notch education and values to help maintain their wealthy lineage. It’s almost as if this was segregation but through social class instead. I thought it was interesting how in the past “old money” tried to keep themselves distant from “new money” which were people who gained capitalism themselves and not through heritage. It’s almost as if the upper class actually had royalty or like emphasizing monarchy. Overall, I further understand the large gap of the upper class from the lower classes. They have systems that literally just let them live their lives with no interaction with the lower class. Even in universities they have private clubs that keep them separated from the middle class. All their social networks are only with the upper class. Their conventional norms are a lot different from the rest of society and it shows because me being a person of the working and middle class. I can see how much they’ve distanced themselves from us. Yes, the middle class does sometimes distance themselves from the working class but for the most part both classes coexists with one another while the upper class just seems like their community.

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 "Wealth Inequality in the United States" youtube video

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 "Wealth Inequality in the United States" youtube video

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I didn't really know how to feel about that video. I agree that almost everyone realizes there are social class inequalities where “the rich” and top 10% have a lot more wealth in comparison to the working and middle class. But after being shown the realistic distribution of where all the wealth is was insane. It’s almost unfathomable to picture how much the top 10% let alone the top 1% of the wealthy actually have. This shows how drastic the middle class and working class is exploited for the upper class. And it makes sense, everyone knows about inflation and wages aren’t being raised. So we knew there is inequality in wealth but this distribution graph shows how wide the gap really is. Reflecting now, I do hear a lot of middle class workers having a hard time making it by now. They’re starting to work more and have less free time to experience things. It almost feels like the middle class is now becoming the working class. And now with that video it really open my eyes and how large the gap really is. The social class system highly favors the upper class and the classes underneath are going to slowly suffer more and more. I think why most of the population is unaware of the actually of reality of social class inequality is due to all the distractions in our society and as well as our societal norms. We’re taught to accept what over the government makes use do. We don’t complain about low wages or high tax rates. And I think because we’re so compliant, the middle and lower class is now experiencing the negative affects.