can you give me one paragraph on the class system in the 20th century??

Question

i only want one to two paragraphs so don't go over the top, thanks alot.

Answer 1

At the start of the century the class system dominated British social life. By the end it had almost disappeared.

In 1900 the traditional "upper class" (nobility, gentry) owned much of the land, collectively held a veto over new legislation through the House of Lords, and disproportionately owned the capital wealth of the country. The "working class" men worked in factories or on farms and their women stayed at hmoe and brought up the children.

By 1950 there was a clear sense of a two-class system, with the "middle" and "working" classes often seen as rivals and in conflict. "Working class" men often belonged to trade unions and sometimes came out on strike.

By 2000 the upper class were a mere relic, nearly 3/4 of people who worked worked in offices, and about 70% of households owned their own homes, so by the old definitions Britain had become a "middle class society". A new underclass existed, of about 5% of the population, people who do not work but survive on benefits and reliant on drink and/or narcotic drugs to cope with day-to-day life.

Answer 2

The class system is a socially exclusive paradigm. It is a system that ensures division of people and enables the few to exploit the majority. The class systems or rather for a more accurate term the Feudal sytem was created to ensure that the upper classes could maintain their wealth and power. Supressing the majority through means of exploitation has been a consisitent social etiquette for centuries. The church was a supporter of the class system and believed that the upper classes were so because the were good Christians and the punishment of poor Christians was poverty.
With the advancement of Human Rights activists and the work of the Suffragettes, the class system is diminishing, though it is still existant it is not as difficult to break and move between the classes. The 20th Century saw the end of class based legal restitutions and access to public service. The welfare system that was created in the 20th century help deminish the class system as it created a precedent for all persons to be treated equally, by means such as the creation of the NHS system and increasing the access to social benefits.

Answer 3

All societies have a hierarchical structure. Equality under the law is a realistic aspiration but any other form of egalitarianism is not only a pipe dream but also makes society unworkable. Attempts to impose socialist style societies in the Soviet Union and China have both failed. Irrespective of the high minded beliefs that people may hold, they want material reward and this is the ultimate motor of progress.

The English class system has, until recent years vested the power of the country in the hands of those who are not only wealthy but also educated and cultured. This power has generally been exercised benignly with significant opportunities for the able but not so wealthy to climb the ladder.

The greatest retrograde step to class movement was the introduction of the comprehensive school. This made a good education a luxury of those who could afford it instead of the extensive meritocracy that was our grammar school system.
Subsequent degrading of the state education and the resultant qualifications mean that a school leaver must incur the expense of a degree to stand any chance of a worthwhile career.

As the class system is swept away, it is replaced a system where a person’s status is determined mainly by their wealth. Ask yourself this question: Who is likely to make the best decision in government, a 10th generation peer worth £100m who wishes to see England survive for another 10 generations or the chap from suburbia who is mainly concerned with career advancement and accumulation of personal wealth?

Answer 4

Today there is not an action or a thought that is not trapped in the net of received ideas. The slow fall-out of particles of the exploded myth spreads sacred dust everywhere, choking the spirit and the will to live. Constraints have become less occult, more blatant; less powerful, more numerous. Docility no longer emanates from priestly magic, it results from a mass of minor hypnoses: news, culture, town-planning, publicity, mechanisms of conditioning and suggestion in the service of any order, established or to come. We are like Gulliver lying stranded on the Lilliputian shore with every part of his body tied down; determined to free himself, he looks keenly around him: the smallest detail of the landscape, the smallest contour of the ground, the slightest movement, everything becomes a sign on which his escape may depend. The most certain chances of liberation are born in what is most familiar. Was it ever otherwise? Art, ethics, philosophy bear witness: under the crust of words and concepts, the living reality of non-adaptation to the world is always crouched, ready to spring.

Domination is a right, exploitation a contract, organisation an order of things. The tyrant dominates according to his will to power, the capitalist exploits according to the laws of profit, the organiser plans and is planned. The first wants to be arbitrary, the second just, the third rational and objective. The aristocrat's inhumanity is a humanity seeking itself; the exploiter's inhumanity tries to disguise itself by seducing humanity with technical progress, comfort and the struggle against hunger and disease; the cybernetician's inhumanity is the inhumanity which accepts itself. In this manner, the master's inhumanity has become less and less human. A systematic extermination camp is far more horrifying than the murderous fury of feudal barons throwing themselves into gratuitous war. And what lyricism there still is even in the massacres of Auschwitz compared with the icy hands of generalised conditioning which the cyberneticians' technocratic organisation reach out towards the future society, that is so close!

Answer 5

I'm basing all these on American society in 20th century.
Class system's had always existed throughout history, and even today, all over the world. And the class sytem had pretty much depended on your money value. in 20th century, as always, there's the rich, the top few percent of the country that has everything. maissions, money, position, power, anything they carved. they control majority of the country's money and wealth, and they're politically powerfully, many are in the business. they live a life of luxary. they usually live in the outskirt of the town, with huge houses and large gardens. then of course there are the poors, thet bottom part though the larger part of our society. many are immigrants, live in crowned tenant houses where disease are wide spread and living condition horrible. they work long hours in hot and unsafe factories earning barelly enough wages to support their family. they lived in the older downtown areas. the Lower East Side of Manhatten is a classic example. then there's the middle class, which is considerably new. the middle class live in neat rows of houses in middle of town. they are usaully well-do, like lawyers and teachers. they have enough money to keep their family from going hungry and for health care. they are in the middle. they often join clubs and societies. many of them worked hard to obtain their positions. and they have to pay taxes, which doesn't really effect the riches, and poors don't have to pay. but yeah, that's the class system.

Answer 6

For most of the twentieth century the class system became less rigid, enabling more equality and social movement on the basis of merit. However, economic conditions in the last quarter of the century saw inequality increase again.

Answer 7

I am far too high class to answer a question from a common person!Now go back and clean the windows!

Answer 8

It's the same the whole world over
Ain't it a blinking shame
It's the rich what get the pleasure
and the poor what get the blame.

Answer 9

Just watch the classic sketch with John Cleese and the Two Ronnies - "I know my place" (It was on The Frost Report)

Answer 10

I can't remember one line let alone one paragraph.