Blog Post #14 - Democratic Elitism

Which democracy theories are the most fit for our society?  Not many people have asked themselves that, but I think a lot of people have unconsciously thought about this, without including specific sociological terms.  There are a few democracy theories, but I think the theory I agree with the most is Democratic Elitism.

Why Democratic Elitism?  Before explaining why   I agree with Democratic Elitism the most, I must explain what this is.  Democratic Elitism is simply the belief that a society must be governed by a select group of “gifted” or highly educated individuals.  These individuals are thought to be more knowledgeable than most people, and therefore more fit to govern them.  An example of this is a government.  We, as a society, subscribe to Democratic Elitism. 

I think this theory is the best because I cannot think of any modern society which is fully functional and organized without a body of government.  Putting the direct power of governing in the hands of individuals would promote disorder, and put rules on the mercy of biases and prejudices.  Our politicians have to meet certain requirements in order to be able to govern us, and do a good job in keeping us safe and well governed.  Not everyone is fit to govern a society, and without a organized government we would not be able to establish rules and laws, since everyone has their own opinions and views.  For that reason, it is necessary for us to democratically elect an elite that will make it their main jobs to govern us, and look out for our well being.  

Blog Post #13 - Is Walmart Good For America?

Is Walmart good for America?  For someone who works in retail, it is a very tricky question to answer.  I have never worked in Walmart, however I have many friends who do, and they have different opinions regarding whether Walmart is a good or bad place to work, or what is their influence within their communities.  Walmart was founded in 1962, by retail worker Sam Walton.  Today, Walmart is the world's largest retailer and corporation, with more than 6000 stores around the world, half of which are located in the U.S.  With that, can we establish whether Walmart is good or bad for America? 

Many people argue it is bad.  Its low prices and high sales mean, for many, low cost of living and low salaries.  Many of my friends who work at Walmart argue that because it's prices are so low, it encourages low wage labor and low quality of living.  Many also argue that it causes its workers to have to work more hours in order to meet demanding expectations.  According to Frontline's documentary, Walmart also has a certain power upon manufacturers, causing costs of goods to go down.  Walmart is argued to have taken the power out of manufacturers and into retailers' hands.  

Many people argue that Walmart is bad for America, however I somewhat disagree.  Many other stores pay minimum wage to their employees, and many of them have low retail prices.  Walmart is targeted because of its popularity.  Walmart's annual revenues are of more than a quarter of a trillion dollars, and have 1.5 million employees worldwide, more than 1 million of whom are in the United States. This shows that Walmart not only brings millions of jobs, which are more than needed in our economy, it also brings money to our government.  Walmart is the largest private employer in the United States, which is obviously a beneficial thing.  

Many people argue that Walmart lowers standards of living,  hurts retail trade, and due to its popularity,disrupts some communities.  Many others on the other hand, can see that although Walmart drives cost of goods to be lower and low wage labor to be higher, it is the largest employer in this country.  Walmart drives employment opportunity and activity in the economy, and in my opinion it is beneficial to America.  

Blog Post #12 - Family Chores

Filling up our Family Duty Chart was an interesting experience.  There were somethings that surprised me, however others were.  My mom and my stepfather's roles and chores were pretty equal.  Sometimes both of them could be checked for the same chores (planning vacations, buying groceries, etc.) 

I was surprised with how little I actually contribute to my family duty chart.  I thought I helped quite a lot, but upon filling up this chart I noticed that I don't do as much as I thought I did.  After looking at it for a while, I noticed that maybe it was because I was responsible for the house "maintenance" chores (dishes, vacuuming  bathroom cleaning, etc) which have to be done more often than others (like writing holiday cards, planing vacations, or car maintenance.)  

This chart was quite interesting and fun to complete.  I think most people found that, if they were one of the kids (which is my case) they did much less than their parents.  As our podcast said, it was also interesting to look at what types of chores each of us did, and to observe who was in charge of "fun" chores (although I don't think any chores can be considered "fun")  Our podcast also makes an interesting point that in the card, there are many chores that I didn't think of as chores.  

Blog Post #11 - Secularism

I think the world is becoming increasingly secularized.  In Europe (of all places), for example, we can observe than Atheism is becoming increasingly popular.  Secularism and Free thinking are more present within the Western media now a days, and that means that more people have access to secularist ideas.  Western shows, comedies, movies, etc are becoming less religious.  Maybe that is due to the fact that it is not politically correct to impose a certain religion, and that is why extreme religious views are less present in Western media.  But secularism is not just a western "thing".  Since out TV shows, movies, music, etc can be bought and seen throughout the world, secularist ideas have been able to spread.  I also attribute the increasing of secularism to a more accessible scientific base.  Many years ago, common people did not have access to science, and therefore they could not use it to answer their questions about our environment and our existence.  Now we have almost unlimited (and extremely easy) access to science, studies, experiments, scientific books, scientific ideas, and that is making it much easier for people to explain what they see around them by using reason instead of religion.  

Many may ask what the appropriate role of religion in a government is?  Simple answer:  None.  Religion should stay out and away from our government.  Throughout history we have been observing that mixing religion with politic is not a good idea.  In order to have a fair government that has the well being of everyone in mind, we must have a government that has no religious affiliation.  The appropriate role of religion is to stay within believers' hearts and out of our laws and regulations.  

Blog Post #10 - Tale of Two Families

Tale of Two Families was very interesting to read.  From the very start you can see that Max's family is already in a much more comfortable situation than Byron's.  As the story goes by, we can see many examples of how racial segregation can change people's lives, even if they have the same interests and same capacities.  Byron was just as intelligent as Max, however he had to work twice as hard in order to get where is is.  He needed to have trust on himself and focus on his studies, and because of his effort, he got a scholarship.  Max was also talented and bright, but he had a lot more money and could get his education worry free.  As this story concludes we see that even today, when our society has gotten a lot better in terms of racial segregation, both Max's and Byron's communities still are segregated.  Byron's family sold their houses for very little money, while Max's family got 14 times what they paid for.  But that is not their fault.  Both families are honest, hard working, and have talented children.  Our society is what causes this inequality.  It is very heart warming to see that both Max and Byron grew up to be very successful men and work together.  This shows that with effort and strength, we can overcome even those obstacles that were already here even before we were born.  Of course social and economic background help a lot, but being honest, hard workers and putting effort into what we do, we can get very far, and be very successful.

Blog Post #9 - Gender Inequality

What I've learned about gender inequality and social construction of gender this week has been somewhat surprising. It has been said that our society does not exactly take gender inequality seriously.  I agree in some aspects.  Here in the U.S., gender inequality isn't so much of a problem, since women and men have pretty much the same rights.  Of course, there is still some inequality (such as different salaries, or gender specific jobs) but in my opinion, none of these inequalities actually invade's either genders' rights.  

Unfortunately that is not the case in other societies.  In my Gender Inequality   Assignment, I interviewed two women from different cultures:  Brazil and Pakistan.  My findings from these interviews weren't exactly surprising, since I expected there to be greater inequality (for religious reasons in Pakistan and for economic reasons in Brazil), however hearing about those things from someone who lived gender discrimination  and had basic rights actually stripped away from them...  was, for lack of better word, shocking.  Many sociologists agree that gender inequality is still a serious problem today, but that it is disappearing.  I agree i parts.  I think that gender discrimination is disappearing in more developed societies, and it may be getting better in less developed ones (Brazil has its first female president), however I don't think that less fortunate classes of these less developed countries can see a difference.  In my opinion, that happens because gender inequality never comes alone.  There isn't a society who discriminates just for the sake of doing such.  Gender discrimination comes with other problems, such as social and economic background, cultural background, and (more evidently) religious background.  Less developed societies are weaker social and economically, and therefore depend on labor intensive work.  For that reason, women may be considered less useful.  That is how a larger difference between men and women appeared in the first place.  When humans were hunters and gatherers, both men and women had similar roles, and therefore similar importance within society.  Once we started settling down, owning land, and becoming an agricultural society, labor intensive jobs (that could only be performed by men) became more important, and women's roles were reduced.  One can see that difference in indigenous hunter-gatherers societies.  

I agree with sociologists when they say that gender inequality is not a big problem in developed societies anymore.  In the U.S. both men and women have the same rights.  In may developed Europeans societies, both men and women have similar rights.  But if we stop and think, The U.S. and most European societies are economically stable, and although mostly christian, such societies do not censor free, critical thinking.  Less developed societies, such as Latin American, African and many Muslim societies, are not as fortunate.  These societies have history of being economically handicapped, and most of these societies rely on religion for social, cultural and political purposes.  For that reason, critical thinking is censored, and it becomes much easier to follow gender discrimination.  As previously stated there is a development being seen in these societies from outside, however, a poor percentage of such societies cannot tell the difference.  As I said before, gender inequality is becoming less of a problem in well developed societies, however in less developed ones the issue is moving forward slowly, mainly because, as previously mentioned, gender inequality never comes alone.  Rather, it comes with deeper underlying issues, such as religion, culture, social and economic background.     

Blog Post #8 - Does Global Inequality Affect America?

Does global inequality affect America?  If so, how?  And why should we care?  First of all, global inequality does affect America.  As one of the most powerful countries today, American has a lot of responsibility on helping minimize global inequality.  Many of the wars we have been fighting recently have been described as been “wars for freedom” or “wars for democracy.”  That is one of the ways America takes responsibility on helping other countries fight against inequality.  But how does that affect us?  Well, a simple answer would be:  it affects our pockets.  Every war fought by this country is paid by us tax payers.  That is direct affect of global inequality in each individual.  It also affects us socially.  One of the reasons America has such a great reputation and the land of the free is because our government and political system promotes equality.  Many people may say that America is not equal (and in many points it isn’t) but compared to many other countries (many of which have fought America in some war) we have a great system of equality.  

It also affects us economically, but in other ways.  The money that we spend helping other countries with their inequality problems could well be spent to feed out poor, shelter our homeless and educate our children.  I am not by any means saying that helping other nations is wrong.  As I pointed out in the beginning, as one of the most popular and successful nations today, we are also a symbol of freedom and we should take responsibility into helping our fellow nations.  I am however, stating that many countries may be satisfied with their situation, and sometimes America may come across as getting into unnecessary problems.

Global inequality also affects us politically.  The reason why many people choose to come to this country illegally is because they know that the opportunities in their countries are not equal to the opportunities here.  That affects us, because it giver politicians excuses to explain their ignorance.  For example, immigrants take jobs that many Americans are not qualified to do, or just don’t want to do.  Many politicians take advantage of that and say that immigrants “steal” jobs, when there is no such thing.

With the popularity of internet and social networking, global inequality affects us in personal level.  As humans, we have empathy towards one another, and seeing other country’s peoples suffer with inequality hurts us.  Global inequality does affect America, not only in an economic level, but also in a personal level.  

Copyright Disclaimer:  The pictures posted do not belong to me.