SOC 1001 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Free Rider Problem, Social Stratification, Pareto Principle
Document Summary
Views of inequality: jean jacques rousseau-influenced french revolution and sociologist thought. Social problems develop through the process of building society and repressing pure and good nature. Social equality: a condition in which no differences in wealth, power, prestige or status based on non-natural conventions exist, result of privileges and uneven access to resources. Certain amount of natural inequality will always exist: the scottish enlightenment and thomas malthus. Inequality is good, or at least necessary, arises when private property emerges, which emerges when resources can be preserved, because it is only though surpluses that some people are able to conserve and increase their bounty. When something can be preserved the incentive becomes to hoard all of it instead of share it so it won"t go to waste. Won"t just accumulate what is needed for survival. Inequality is necessary for avoiding the problem of massive overpopulation and hence starvation- keeps the population in check.
