SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Social Inequality in the Philippines Randy Formaran De La Salle University

February 27, 2012

SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN THE PHILIPPINES

There are some situations that a government official hinders the rights of a certain individual because of his social status. This situation lessens a citizens dignity as a human being, its like the officials think that theyre higher than the civilian because of their position in the society. A childs future is to be largely determined by social status, not brains, (Lone, 1979, Small Futures: Children, Inequality, and the Limits of Liberal Reform) I therefore conclude that this statement is most likely to be true since more children that have high social status grows to be more successful that intelligent children that are not so lucky. This is social inequality. Social inequality refers to a situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social status, social class, and social circle. Social inequality has many fields such as the individuals origin, individual positions, achievements, race, sex, and many more. People are classified in this field and are used to compare people and give recognition to the superior person. The word social inequality is composed of two words mainly social which refers to a characteristic of living organisms as applied to populations humans and other animals, and Inequality which means that several things are not in the same level or there is a superior one from comparing several beings. Social inequality is also known as social biasness, social discrimination, social difference, and many more.

Social biasness can be seen more often in our country. We can perceive that the government is in favour of people that have good social status rather than people in the lower class. For example, some politicians are not being caught by traffic enforcers when they commit a driving violation, this is because of their

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position in the society. The support of the government is biased on the social status of a citizen. There is no equality, unlucky children in poor families gets free education and free education has a lower quality of education than private schools which children with middle class families are enrolled into. Education should be distributed equally, rich or poor, girl or boy, black or white, and even local or foreign. The rising importance of dimensions such as age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, political attitudes, and multiple choices to organize the notion of life course has made the older concept appear obsolete, (Bogenhold, 1995, Focus on Economic Sociology) this means that the citizens nowadays are categorized based on various fields and the view on equality is now fading.

Let us now move on to social discrimination. Social discrimination is a situation where a citizen with a better social status abused a citizen which is lower in the aspects of education, finance, and such. Bullying and racism are examples of social discrimination. Bullied people contribute to the number of suicide incidents in the world. There are about 4,400 suicidal deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it. Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University. All of these deaths, just because of bullying that are created by social discrimination.

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Last is social difference. Social difference is the categorizing of citizens based on their certain aspects in the society. There are multiple types of social classes in the Philippines, First is the high class which as also called as the wealthy and the elites. Politicians, government officials and rich people are some of the citizens that belong to the high class. These people have the income to do almost anything they want, they are living their dream. Next is the middle class, these are people with jobs and are earning enough money so they cannot be called poor or rich. These people have money to use in their everyday needs but are not enough to be called as rich people. According to Nikolai Tilkidjie, the best political community is formed by citizens of the middle class, and that those states are likely to be well administered, in which the middle class is large, and stronger if possible than both the other classes, or at any rate than either singly; for the addition of the middle class turns the scale, and prevents either of the extremes from becoming dominant. (Tilkidjie, Nd, The Middle Class as a Precondition of a Sustainable Society) This means that a perfect state is composed of people that came from the middle class because his will make a society wherein there are no superior or inferior citizens. Last is the lower class, these are people with no jobs or with non formal jobs and are earning no or low amount of money. These are the drivers, housemaids, and such. These people usually have not graduated college or high school which is the cause of their unlucky social status.

There are different causes of social inequality but let us concentrate on the two main causes of social inequality according to Greg Duncan from the University of California and Richard J. Murnane from Harvard University; education and culture.(

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Duncan and Murnane, 2008, Social Inequality and Educational Disadvantage) Both of these aspects contribute to the social status of a citizen. Let us start with education. Education is the stepping stone or foundation of a citizens financial capability and establishes the ability to become self sufficient. The higher the level of education attained, more opportunities in life can be taken. For example, a citizen finished college with AB-Psychology as his course. This citizen has the choice to be a law student which will lead him to become a lawyer, judge or a politician in the future or as a medicine student and be a psychologist, psychiatrist or a teacher. Due to the countless choices that an educated person can attain, this concept creates a ranking in all citizens based on their education level and causes social inequality. Education can classify citizens to what type of social class are they in; high, middle or lower class.

We will now move on to culture as the cause of social inequality. A countrys culture will tell the countrys abundance and economic stability. Let us think of it as a race, the leading countries that have abundant cultures are now economically stable and gaps higher in technology while other countries are left because of the slow phase of their culture. For example, take a look at the United States of America and our country the Philippines. The United States of America learned to adapt and harness the aura of the changing world; they moved on forward and feed their culture on the way. The Philippines on the other hand has a different approach. The Philippines gain the some of the culture of other countries, it adapts by clinging to the changes that other countries make. Due to this, the Philippines benefit the other countries and make them move faster in the race. Through this, social discrimination existed due to the

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level of a certain country. A hegemonic state now exists and when there is a hegemonic state, there will always be third world countries. Every country is ranked based on their economy, from third world countries to hegemonic states.

We now know what the causes of social inequality are. Let us move on to the effects or impact of this problem. There are two categories of the impacts of social inequality; on a certain citizen and on the society as a whole. First is on a certain citizen. According to Professor Wilkinson, individuals are so sensitive to inequality, and how it gets under the skin to affect health. The main individual psychosocial risk factors leading to ill health and premature death include low social status, lack of friends, and difficult early life experience. Together these tell us about the stress associated with the quality of the social environment, reflecting how far we feel either appreciated and valued, or suffer anxieties and insecurities about whether others regard us as unattractive, boring, stupid, or socially gauche.(Wilkinson, Nd, The Impact of Inequality) This means that social inequality affects the health of a person physically and mentally.

Let us now move on to the society as a whole. There is only one impact of social inequality to the society that I can think of, and that is the disintegration of unity. Unity is an important aspect of a society. This is what makes a country stronger. For example, look at the Republic of China. They are greatly united to each other and they give importance to their nationality. This is what makes their country successful. And now, look at our country, the Philippines. We are negatively

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separated by the social classes and this causes tragedies such as theft, corruption, drug monopoly or just the dramatic increase of crime rate in our country. This is what happens when unity is deprived from a society.

Social inequality, it is a disease of a society. If this problem continues to exist, the unity of our society will vanish completely. Crime will eat our country instantly and no one, even the government officials, can stop it. Imagine an apocalyptic wasteland that is frequently seen in movies such as The Matrix and Book of Eli. That may be the worst case scenario of our county if this problem lasts until the end of time. There is one possible solution to this problem that I could think of, give equal education to everyone in our country whether they are rich or poor. This is a counter to the first cause of social inequality. Let us prove the statement A childs future is to be largely determined by social status, not brains wrong. When everyone has the number of opportunities in life that they can choose from, no one will be low. This can create a country made of professional citizens. Social inequality is resolved and at the same time the countrys economy will improve. As soon as possible, resolve this problem. We shall avoid the worst case scenario of having an apocalyptic wasteland for a country and have a successful country instead.

SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN THE PHILIPPINES References: Lone, R D. (1979), Small Futures: Children, Inequality, and the Limits of Liberal Reform. http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/strat.html Bogenhold, D. (1995), Focus on Economic Sociology http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_4_60/ai_80802019/ Duncan, G. and Murnane, R. J. (2008), Social Inequality and Educational Disadvantage

http://www.russellsage.org/awarded-project/social-inequality-and-educationaldisadvantage Wilkinson, R. (Nd), The Impact of Inequality http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/social_sciences/report45730.html