Who here thinks that America is really a classless society with no hierarchical rule based on heredity?

Question

and if you support it as "everybody has their place to function according to their own skills". Then why not just have a varuna system based on caste like before it was denounced? Don't you think some could be both a janitor and/or a computer programmer based on their environment they were raised in and not on their DNA?

Answer 1

It's more English than people think it is here in the US. There may not be visible hierarchical rule, but it does exist. Take a look at the presidents---all white and usually Ivy League educated, from rich families. If you're upper-class (here defined by the amount of money you have,) you can have anything. They brought a lot of their English ideas over too, such as country clubs, debutante balls, styles of gardens and so forth.

The only societies I know of in America that were truly classless and without hereditary rights would be many Eastern Native nations, including my own. The only thing you inherit is your clan, and even that didn't matter except when you decided to get married (you couldn't marry into your mother's or father's clan.) Other than that, we were egalitarian people. I still don't get the class systems in mainstream America or England (where the American classism came from.)

Answer 2

America is jndeed a society of classes. If you look at the figures for class-mobility, you will find that there is very little. This means that, for most, one generation in a family will not be significantly better off than the previous. There is no formal class structure like a caste system, but there is an informal class system. The elite tends to be self-perpetuating, while, although their are exceptions, it is nearly impossible for the people on the lower rungs to have a reasonable opportunity to reach the top.

One only needs to look at schools. The quality of education in poor neighborhoods is much worse than the quality in rich neighborhoods. Not to mention that the cost of a college education puts it out of reach for many. There is not equality of opportunity; the system favors the entrenched interests of the mostly white upper and middle classes and fails to give people who are outside of that group the same opportunity to succeed. I don't see how anyone can say that there is not a system of classes in place.

Answer 3

Sorry, I didn't like 1984.

Heredity will play always play a role in what individuals can do in a free market society, even more so than social class. Only a certain proportion of the population have the spatial/logical reasoning suitable to become a computer programmer, or the musculature to become a long distance athlete, for instance.

The beauty of averages is that you can have people suited for practically every task in society. And you give human beings as many opportunities as possible so they can make use of those skills (compulsory education, later job training/specialization, equivalent laws, scholarship contests, etc).

Answer 4

No royalty, free education thru 12 grades, ability and 'IQ' tests that open the way to scholarships and grants, There will always be some favoritism but the cream rises more easily in the USA than where there are those evil 'entitlements' so hated by most of the immigrants to the USA.

Answer 5

Uhhh...do we have a ruling class based on heredity?

I am pretty sure not.

However, I will never be ready for a classless society. It removes the motivation to work hard and be successful and it rewards the lazy.

They have a word for what you are talking about. Socialism/communism.

Answer 6

well it is questionable , just walk down the street of a major american city

Answer 7

I don't! There's rich people then poor people. Ever been to NYC?

Answer 8

This is a wild one!