What impact does social division still have on society?

Question

Although the extremes of poverty and aristocracy are no longer expressed openly in society what impacts does social division through class still have on the community and on a larger scale of the world?

Answer 1

division separates, impact would be negative due to alienation.

Answer 2

The biggest issue in my opinion in the US is on the education system.

Property taxes pay for schooling in a given location. Impoverished areas have low property values. Low property values means low property taxes. Low property taxes means few funds for the local school system. Fewer funds often times means a lower quality education. This perpetuates the cycle, with a poorly educated worker making far less than a better educated worker.

Neither party has addressed this issue adequately, and I can't figure out why they haven't. This is one area I believe some sort of wealth distribution will positively impact all Americans. Take some property tax revenues from the wealthy areas and fund the poor school districts.

Of course its not that simple, but not so much more difficult.

Answer 3

A lot more than we would like to think. Because our housing is grouped by income in metro areas, more and more people grow up with little contact with people of very different income levels. Schools which, in small communities serve everybody in town, in metro areas are often almost as stratified by income as housing. Children pick up values, ambition and attitudes not just from their parents but theirs peers, so how peers feel about occupations and education effect your future income. There is much less income and social mobility between generations today than in the past. This limited contact also allows people to make assumption about people base on income, as in if you rich are your are greedy or the poor are lazy, because they have no first hand information about people of different income levels. That is the social divisions are reinforcing themselves and are growing in importance as the nation becomes more urbanized.