There are three different theories that can be used to describe society as a whole. Firstly, functionalism states that society is composed of interlocking and dependent parts that work together to promote the stability of the whole. For example, judicial systems help maintain order, and schools teach children. Secondly, symbolic Interactionism states that society is composed of the day to day interactions of individuals and small groups. Basically, how people communicate and interact with each other depends on how they interpret factors such as language, actions, and statuses in their social life. Lastly, conflict theory describes the inequality of social groups and their constant competition for scarce resources. Although all of these theories are valid for describing society, the conflict theory, in my opinion, is the theory I agree with the most. There was a very large amount of middle class families who recently became lower class because they lost everything they had in the recession. They lost jobs, their houses, cars, couldn’t pay the bills and had to stop purchasing their wants and start concentrating on their needs. Many times I would assume they would want to just give up but they can’t, especially if they had families. They need to do whatever they can to make money and provide for the family. All these lower class families and individuals had to start competing for scarce resources. The higher class families eventually went to middle class due to all the shortages of money everywhere. Nobody was buying anything anymore besides food and struggling to pay bills. So everyone took a toll on the recession. So being on the lower end its pretty hard to get back up on your feet, and the middle class is just going nowhere. The middle is basically categorized mostly by a college education and they live day to day and are content with what they have. Being in a recession nobody can really ask for much. My family was personally affected by the recession. My dad lost his job, we had to move, and life wasn’t the greatest at the time. After two years the economy started picking up little by little and he found a job. We are a middle class family and were content with what we have but we have unlimited wants which makes me strive to do well in school. Even though I know it’s going to be hard and no matter what it takes a toll on just about everyone we will all get through it. I believe this theory the most for the fact it has affected my family in such hard ways that still occur today and with many other families. The higher class today in my opinion controls the economy, and basically dictates to everyone else how to live their lives. They’re greedy and provide cheap labor and part time jobs, so they don’t have to provide benefits. They just don’t care about the lower/middle class and are so caught up in their own lives that they forget there’s other people on this planet that work there asses off and don’t get famous and rich out of nowhere. Not saying that there isn’t any hard working rich individuals out there but if they all contributed to society a lot more and weren’t so selfish we would have less of a lower class and more stable families. With more stable families, more jobs, everyone would be happier, and have less conflict in this society. I strongly believe that Conflict Theory best describes society today. We have so many lower class families now that food stamps in a family are common. No longer are people buying their wants but only their needs because that’s all they can afford. Being that low is so hard to get back up and become middle class again or even higher. The rich should be contributing to helping their community around them out, because they way I see it is the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.
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