Table of Contents
Introduction
Social class is a division of a society based on social and economic status where wealth, power, culture, behavior, heritage and prestige all come into play(Britannica). Even though social classes have been around since the first civilizations, it’s been spiraling out of control in the most recent decade as less and less members of this country have been coming out of the middle class into the lower class.
According to UC Davis, 39.7 million Americans are currently living in a crude state of poverty as of 2015. Most individuals stay in this line of poverty their whole life, unless there is a big life change that happens such as marriage or new incomes (Fonteknot). As of right now, there are many concerns of the behaviors and actions at the hands of the lower and high classes.
In a recent study from David Dubois, an associate professor of marketing at INSEAD and Co-Director of the Leading Digital Marketing Program claimed, “ higher-class individuals are more likely to cheat when the unethical behavior benefits the self but lower-class individuals are more likely to cheat when the unethical behavior benefits another person”(Dubois). Most people think higher classes would behave better, but that is not the case as recent research has proven that wrong. Higher class individuals show more unethical behaviors than lower class individuals because of the gains of lying, less giving back to charities, and not paying taxes nearly enough taxes.
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Gains By Lying
Since the beginning of time, higher social classes have seen themselves more powerful which leads them more prone to lie to gain something for themselves. In many studies from social psychologists, it is shown the rich lie more for themselves, while lower statues lie to benefit someone else. Paul Priff, a social psychologist at Berkeley, University claimed, “ We’re not saying that if you’re rich, your necessarily unethical and that if you’re poor, your necessarily ethical— there are lots of instances of increased ethical conduct among upper-class individuals”(Choi).
To support this idea, Derek Rucker, a professor of marketing combined research with Adam Galinsky and David Dubois. They set up experiments on an unplanned group of the public and it indeed did show that lower classes, 37% of the time lied for someone they love to get $50 and for themselves only 5%. When it came to the higher class, it was the complete opposite as 47% lied to gain something for themselves and 5% did it for someone else (Stone). These experiments gave a clearer understanding of the differences between the reasons for lying in each class.
There is a explanation, as higher position leads to having an increase in wealth and supplies/resources. This gives a physiological effect that gives them a new sense of power which leads to a cheating path that benefits them(Rucker). Lower positions have less power and makes them more bonded to the common and lean on others, which makes them want to help others more often, even if it’ s seen as unethical(Rucker). This data shows how higher classes can show unethical actions compared to the lower classes.
Giving Back
The common thought is the more rich someone is, the more they would be able to give back to charities. This is true, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the more money you give the more generous you are. Helaine Olen, an award winning writer focusing on politics, economics, and the American life stated, “As a group, the wealthy do donate more money overall, but as a proportion of earnings, many of them give less than those with far less wealth”(Olen). Supporting this idea is Ken Stern, the author of With Charity for All: Why charities are Failing and a Better Way to Give.
He gives the real difference of the amount of giving between classes as the top 20% of earning individuals contributed 1.3% of their income to charities. While people at the bottom 20% donated 3.2% to charity, almost double of what their counterparts donated. David Callahan, the founder of Inside Philanthropy and a businessman shares his ideas on the reasons higher socioeconomic economic individuals were unable to donate more of their money. Supposedly, most are too occupied to look into the certain charities they would want to make a donation too.
Not only that, it seems that it’s harder to pull money out of their businesses and hard to completely part with the money(Olen). Not only does this occur, but the rich and poor tend to have different viewpoints on where their charity money should go. Wealthier people put the money towards the arts, universities, and health care. The poor seem to go in the complete opposite direction as their money tends to go to human services that would help the poor and others more greatly(Rogers). The lower percent of the SES people donate larger amounts of their money compared to higher classes due to their
Billionaires Lack of Taxes
The economic backbone of this country is not the higher classes as they give less taxes and the lower class gives the most. Because of their money, “rich people and major corporations have the means to legally avoid taxes” (Jones). This goes onto the fact that a working American pays twice the amount of taxes a billionaire would pay. This ends up cutting their income in half(Jones).
Leona Helmsley, a woman that committed tax evasion stated to the public her opinion on what higher classes should do, “we don’t pay taxes, only the little people pay taxes” (Jones). Even the rich admits they should not pay taxes, and with the money that could be used for taxes, it’s instead used by lawyers who gets them out of paying taxes. It was found 46% of tax filers don’t pay federal taxes from tax exclusions. This leaves more than 4000 individuals with 1 million incomes don’t pay taxes.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, over half of the money from tax exclusions stays in the pockets of the rich (Ingraham). This weakens the economy greatly for the other class as it sizes down the middle . The middle class used to be 70% of the US, while now it’s shrinking as it only makes up 50% of the classes now(Luhby). This is important as it affects the economic growth of our country and leads to lower wages and higher housing rates. Therefore, billionaires are paying less taxes while the hard working lower classes are paying all of them, leaving them to feel as if they were left in the dust.
Conclusion
The current social status problem cannot be fixed, as it has been around for hundreds of years and is embedded into our society. Even though social classes have a negative effect on today’s society, it still plays an important economic role in today’s world. Not only is it tough to change someone’s behavior, but the classes have a very strict line between each other making it almost impossible to transfer between the three. There are indeed little solutions that could eventually lead to fixing the difference of the social classes, since these can’t be fixed in less than a year. Solutions such as spreading more awareness to all of the public over social media, pointing out charities that are worthy of achieving charitable money, and new behavior improvements. These factors call all help change the economic social class, but only if the people decide to.
Works Cited
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Social Class.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 16 Nov. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/socialclass.
- Choi, Charles Q. “Rich People More Likely to Lie, Cheat, Study Suggests.” LiveScience, Purch, 27 Feb. 2012, www.livescience.com/18683-rich-people-lie-cheat-study.html.
- Dubois, David. “Does Social Class Impel Bad Behaviour?” INSEAD Knowledge, INSEAD Knowledge , 6 Jan. 2015, knowledge.insead.edu/ethics/does-social-Class-impel-bad-behaviour-3774
- Fonteknot, Semega J. “What Is the Current Poverty Rate in the United States?” UC Davis Center for Poverty Research, poverty.ucdavis.edu/faq/what-current-poverty-rate-united-states.
- Ingraham, Christopher. “Why Thousands of Millionaires Don’t Pay Federal IncomeTaxes.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 3 Oct. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/03/why-thousands-of-millionaires-dont-pay-federal-income-taxes/?utm_term=.3011f1e79c90.
- Jones, Owen. “We Don’t Want Billionaires’ Charity. We Want Them to Pay Their Taxes | Owen Jones.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 26 Oct. 2018, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/26/dont-want-billionaires-philanthropy-pay-their-taxes.
- Olen, Helaine. “Why Don’t America’s Rich Give More to Charity?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 Dec. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/12/why-dont-rich-give-more-charity/548537.
- Rogers, Kate. “Poor, Middle Class and Rich: Who Gives and Who Doesn’t?” Fox Business, Fox Business, 11 Jan. 2016, www.foxbusiness.com/ features/poor-middle-class-and-rich-who-gives-and-who-doesn’t
- Stone, Emily. “Social Class Affects Why We Lie.” Kellogg Insight, 22 Aug. 2018, insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/social-class-affects-why-we-lie
- Wiesel, Elie. Night. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960.
