ALL sociology paper 2 revision

Cox - Marxist

• developed a theory of racism based on his Marxist perspectives: racism is a product of capitalism.

• it was made by the ruling class exploiters to exploit certain races, seen in history with racism

• the aim of racism is to divide and rule, turning people against each other which therefore stops the proletariat from coming together as a homogenous group

the Birmingham centre of contemporary cultural studies - Marxist

• racism is connected to colonialism as it is connected to the exploitation of migrant labour in capitalist societies

• while some people resist racism, the use of British nationalism appealed to the white working class

• economic factors are also important e.g. Britain in the 70’s / 80’s where issues with rae developed due to economic crisises and unemployment

• this period saw the emergence of a new racism which stressed the cultural differences between ethnic groups

Durkheim (functionalism)

believes we live in a fair system:

Class stratification: the beneficial hierarchical order of society as it helps society to run well.  

Division of labour: based on occupations. Society organises jobs based on the different functions, skills and abilities people have  

Value consensus comes from members of the society reaching the same common agreement that someone takes their places based on how valuable position is (the more valuable, the morally worthier, the greater the reward) 

He believes this is a fair system because it is meritocratic as everyone has equal opportunity to succeed but also sets limits on aspirations depending on an individuals skills and qualifications.

However, it is problematic as if individuals are put into jobs they don’t want to do,

Parsons (functionalism)

Value consensus is the general agreement of what is good and worthwhile for all of society 

Common values links to social hierarchy because the more successful someone is, they more prestiege they have and increases their social ranking  

The American values are productivity in an economic setting (making money) is most important to American business executives who (through their own initiative, ambition and ability) deserve their rewards be cause society values their skills to be able to achieve this  

Stratification is inevitable because we live in a meritocratic society and there will be a ranking of individuals based on shared values of what is worthy of recognition and seen as success.  

Saunders (new right)

the

stratification of society is NOT inevitable based on economic differences and that it could be possible to reward people equally in terms of status and resources 

The different types of equality  

1. Formal / legal: we all live by the same laws (P)  

2. Opportunity: all individuals compete and those with greater merit achieve more (P)  

3. Outcome: Whatever the effort or achievement, the result is still the same. This can mean that people who work harder are paid the same as people who work less. (N)  

reasons for inequality in economic growth:

• He believes inequality is justified because it encourages people to strive for personal achievement which then benefits society.  

• The belief that the entrepreneurs getting rich to then improve society, also known as the ‘trickle-down theory’  

• Finally, the inequality between classes is because there’s unequal distribution of ability and effort. Those in the middle-class families have genetic inherited ability to work harder than working class counterparts 

Marx (marxism)

Conflict theory – two classes in society, where one class overules the other 

1. Bourgoise  

2. Proleteriat  

Petty bourgoisee – members of society that do gain economically through their workers and ownership of small businesses as they own a means of production (but do not employ a substantial workforce)  

How else do the bourgeoisie excerpt control?  

2. Superstructure – this is the legal and political systems that prevent the proletariat protesting and justify and bourgeoisie rule. Examples of these superstructure social institutions are the family, education and mass media  

3. False consciousness – the working class exist under this because they are not aware of the capitalist system is bad for them. They accept their position and do

Class consciousness will develop because:  

1. Conflict

2. As skills divisions

3. The polarisation

4. Unstable capitalist economies will create more economic crises and unemployment which breeds resentment  

Althusser (neo Marxst

• The ruling class / bourgeoisie have control of their values being predominant in society and only thier views are valued and replicated  

• The working classes are exploited and it is not helpful to society to live with institutions that do benefit the majority and only the minority  

• Working classes are brainwashed to not question their position or inequality and will become conscious that they have the ability but not the opportunities of the bourgeoisie  

Bourdieu (neo marxist)

Class inequality is reproduced by the superstructure which includes family and education. He argues the middle and upper class superiority is justified and legitimated 

For example, the education system claims we live in a meritocracy but the reality is upper classes succeed because they have economic, cultural and social capital.

Economic capital – the ability to afford private education and tutors  

Cultural capital – the bourgeoisie values and attitudes of middle-class parents which align with teachers, so they progress well in school  

Social capital – the networks and contracts beyond education to give them advantages once they finish education  

Braverman

the pursuit of profit meant more automation of jobs in order to create factories and offices that were more productive. This lead to a deskilling of workers

^{why have white collar jobs become unskilled?:}

• Work becomes more routine and not require the same variety of response and less specialised 

• They lose the power they had to pursue their own interests and specialisms  

• The closer regulation of their jobs means greater knowledge of their subordination  

• Pay is threatened because others can come and take their place so they have less control over the supply of labour in their profession  

Weber (weberian)

CLASS 

• He saw the division between the propertyless (the working class who sell their labour) and those who own property and can lve of the proceeds  

• The market situation as he saw it develops from people’s situation in relation to buying and selling their labour power in capitalist economies  

• Within the propertyless group (i.e. middle and working classes) they can sell their labour for a higher price (scarce jobs).

STATUS 

Status means: the level of respect in society an individual has  

Status is often shared by groups of people more often by how they spend their money rather than how they earn it in contemporary society  

PARTY (political party) 

• Weber says party is the third component of class stratification and essentially refers to political parties. Power can come in society from being in the dominant political party and the greater the power, the greater influence and status  

• Weber acknowledged that political power can be linked to economic power (as Marxism suggests) and that the working classes tended to have less power / influence than the higher social classes / upper classes.  

Goldthorpe (weberian)

Embourgeoisement is the theory that the movement of individuals into the bourgeoisie is as a result of their own efforts or collective action 

• To prove this thesis of ‘The Affluent worker’ in the 1960’s. He took a sample of 229 manual workers, plus a comparative group of 54 white collar workers drawn from various grades of clerical work  

• All the workers were working in Luton (a prosperous area in East England) in either Vauxhall, Stefko Ball Bearing Company and Laporte Chemicals  

• All of them were married and 57% were homeowners or buyers. They were highly paid and had similar pay to white collar workers  

Goldthorpe fond that there was a convergence meaning the social groups were moving closer together and becoming more similar.   

lockwood

 approach to class analysis

Market situation: referring to such factors as wages, job security and promotion aspects  

Work situation: social relationships at work between employers and managers, involving being monetarised and their relationships with managers and employers  

Status situation: the degree of prestige enjoyed by workers  

Castles and Kosack

• immigrants tend to be unemployed or in low paid insecure jobs

• this is due to discrimination which comes from capitalism wanting a reserve army of labour, keeping wages low

• using people during booms and stop during slumps

• there is therefore a split between the white working class and thr ethnic minority working class

  • this division stops the development of class consciousness

Hall

• cultural factors must be considered for ethnic inequalities as well as economic factors

• ethnic minorities are exploited economically by capitalism, creating racism

• ethnic minorities used as scapegoats in media (blamed)

• seen in 1970’s with the blame of ethnic minorities for unemployment

• modern day - reform party

Miles - weberian

ethnic minorities are members of racialized class fractions

the working class is split into different groups, with the white workers on one side and ethnic minorities on the other. Ethnic minority sectors often have less power and status

despite similar economic situations they are separate in terms of white working class in terms of culture e.g. South Asians place more importance than family ties

more ethnic minorities are now entering the middle class, causing a white fight - the white middle class not excepting ethnic minorities having a similar position to them

Rex and Tomilson

ethnic minorities form a separate underclass (not like Murray) below the white working class in areas of:

1. labour market

2. housing

3. education

Patterson - New Right

host immigrant model - ethnic groups disturb British norms and values, making people not racist, just unsure of newcomers and how they act. these are seen in:

1. cultural difference and change

2. resentment in competing for resources

3. failure of ethnic minorities to assimilar

in the future, ethnic minorities should;

1. accommodation - find jobs and learn customs of work

2. intergration - white and blacks socialise outside of work

3. assimilation

4. physical amalgamation - look white

New labour

• These groups live in a cultural comfort zone, where they feel comfortable being surrounded by people with the same cultures and traditions  

• This has led to school segregation and white people have responded by moving out of the area – this is known as wite flight  

• The white working class have to compete with ethnic minorities for jobs and housing  

• The counteract a lack of assimilation, the government introduced citizenship tests 

sewell

• 57% of African Caribbean families are lone parent families, compared to the 25% of white families  

• As a result many boys lack the male role model of discipline of a father figure. Theya re not socialised into cultural norms and values 

• As a result, some Young African Caribbean men are drawn into gangs which emphasise and aggressive form of masculinity. Members demand respect, reject authority e.g. teachers and police and focus on up to the minute media 

• This form is reflected and reinforced int he media, with gangster rap and hip-hop fashions and news reports emphasising black street crime and gun culture  

• Sewell argues that the acceptance and support from the peer groups and are adopted an alternative culture  

Firestone

her case for stratification division is biology more than class, with the division of labour based on biology led to women’s oppression.

biological examples: physical advantages (mensturation, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and menopause), dependants on infants on the mother, power psychology of women needing men to survive and the status and power of men to dominate others.

to stop this: firestone suggests:

1. more control over a women becomes pregnant

   1. babies being conceived and developed outside the womb

      1. meaning women are not trapped to be dependant

Millet

‘the personal is the political’, meaning that the government being male-oriented and lack of women’s power trickles down to the workplace and homes to. this can be seen in:

1. early socialisation - males = aggressive, females = passive

2. socialisation - males goven roles to dominate

3. educational - lack of female high status job

4. religion - legitimised dominance of men

   1. physical force - rape, sexual violence and natural male power

      .

lib fem - Oakley

there is a shift from home (families) being units of production to factories making production more centralised on a larger scale, in order to improve life for all, women’s jobs were cut as women were believed to be a threat to male workers, presented by:

1. women employed in 1851: 25%

   1. women employed in 1911: 10%

      the cycle is presented through:

      1. manupulation

      2. canalisation

      3. verbal appellations

      4. different activites

lib fem: Wilkinson

genderquake - radical shift in young women’s attitudes where young females no longer prioritise marriage and children, as their mothers and grandmothers did

the feminisation go the economy has made women more assertive, confident and ambitious, especially middle-class graduates who postpone marriage and family life

Marx fem: Beechy

a ‘reserve army of labour’ means a group brough in during economic booms but taken out during slumps:

• this advantages employers because it creates competition between workers which allows employers to reduce wages and increase the rate of exploitation

  • women tend to be reserve army due to not being in unions and are prepared to work for less e.g. land girls in ww2

Marx fem: Hartmann

the gap for responsibility for who is responsible for the division of labour means people continue to be exploited due to no one to blame

examples:

1. men deny women the living wage

2. the consequence is the are dependant on men

3. the depenancy means they are controlled in the domestic sphere by men

4. control the domestic sphere means dominance within the family

5. dominance means control over bodies and sexuality / becoming property

Black femninism: Collins

feminism supressed black women's experience and ideas, focusing on white middle class women.

Feminist had campaigns in the past were blac women were ignored. This leads to black women continuing to have a more deprived position compared to white counterparts 

equal opportunities report

horizontal segregation - where men and women tend to be in different occupations e.g. men in roofing and driving and women in services and hospitality

vertical segregation: men dominate the higher levels of occupation

glass ceiling: where promotion appears possible but restrictions from discrimination creates barriers to prevent promotion

Barron and Norris

primary labour market - well paid, secure job

secondary labour market - poorly paid, not secure job

• women tend to be in the secondary labour market and is difficult to get into primary

  • the equal opportunity report stated in would take 200 years for women to be represented in the houses of parliament and 50 years before half of the top directors are women

Cambell

there has been a decline in the manufacturing sector and rise in service industries. this has resulted in a fall in unskilled / semi-skilled jobs and a rise in working class unemployment

these changes have been unsettling for men who used to show their masculinity through physical labour.

therefore, men are disadvantaged in the labour market that has undermined their traditional masculine identities

Mac and ghail

• there has been a modern feminisation of the labour market as now jobs associated with male characteristics e.g. primary and physical labour

• this has created insecurity for males, and is described as a crisis of masculinity

• therefore, men are disadvantaged because of changes in the labour market which have undermined traditional masculine identities.

Youth Cohort Studies

females outperform male counteparts at every step of education: KS2, GCSE, A levels and uni

in 2006: there was a 9.6% gender difference

on average, men are 4.5 months behind females in education

Becky Francis

• Boys tend to be disciplined more harshly than girls

• girls fit the role of ideal students

• hegmonic masculinity promotes bad male education

  • boys no lonber believe they are more able than girls in schools

Michelle Stanworth

women are disadvantages in education:

• teachers find it difficult to remember girls in classes

• teachers have stereotypical views of female students

• pupils felt boys had more attention

  • boys a more likely to join discussions

Lobban

there is a bias against girls in books in schools

• over half of stories do not have female heores

• they also found there has been very little change in the books views overtime.

Kilbourne

the media presents women as mannequins: tall and thin, often size 0 and with long legs

this image is used to sell and advertse cosmetics to fit towards the male gaze.

Wolf

images of women in the media present a ‘beauty ideal’ which women should go to for a constant need for improvement

this beauty ideal is found in porn and newspapers which views them as male objects for the male gaze

the male gaze

Malvuey 1941, found that films are made and recorded to portray women through a male lense:

1. the gaze of the camera

2. women are seen as passive

   1. the gaze of characters in films

Connel:

cultural expectations about gender roles in the media in the UK are dominated by hegemonic (ruling or dominant in social context) of masculinity, femininity and sexuality

men: paid work, breadwinners, individualistic, emotionless, aggressive and ambitious

women: house makers, mothers, life in the family, less rational and more emotional `

Truchman et al

symbolic anhiliation on women’s achievements, often caring for their looks rather than their achievements.

Duncome and Marsden

Triple shift of husband, children and emotional

Oakley

primary socialisation of gender roles:

1. manipulation - child’s body appearance

2. canalisation - ‘appropriate’ toys

3. verbal appellations - daddy’s princess

   1. activity exposure - different tasks

Barlow et al

• fathers get less power in unmarried couples e.g. cannot take the abroad on holiday, cannot provide medical consent and no legal right to children if moter dies

  • many are unaware of this, with the formation fo the group ‘fathers for justice’ being made

DV men

1 in 6 men are victims of domestic violence at some stage in their life:

this can be due to:

1. fewer support services

2. bias against men

3. lack of understanding and issues

4. abusive women often get bias in court

functionalism

• having a positive view on the structure of society and how it works together to create social sustainability

Davis and moore

Social stratification occurs in every human society and the hierarchical system gives unequal rewards to different positions, the function prerequisites of food, shelter, clothing and money need to be met for society to operate efficiently but not equally distributed.

role allocation of society should be done by:

1. all roles must be filled

2. they must be filled by people best for the job

3. necessary training to do the job

4. the roles must be performed responsibly

They believe the need is due to people’s innate ability and talent. Because people vary in aspect, so too does their functional importance in society. the more rare a skill, the more valuable it is, this is characterised by it being functionally unique and dependant.

Murray

1. Unequal societies are inevitable and natural  

2. Britain is a meritocracy where best rise to the top and rewarded, giving you a higher position  

3. The unequal distribution of talent is due to genetics  

   UNDERCLASS:
   The increase in benefits and changes to government policies had made it easier for more individuals to become reliant on these and therefore welfare dependant rather than being dependent 

   CULTURE OF POVERTY:

4. Poor schooling or behaviour meant crime up  

2. Homes were littered, unkept and seen for a place to be drunk  

3. Often single parent households with no father model  

Althusser - Neo Marxism

• Ideological state apperatus: institutions and systems which prepare the working-class for a life of exploitation 

• Class inequality exists largely through the education system, as it presents education as meritocratic ( work hard and you will succeed) when that isn’t the real experiences as it rewards the higher classes with access to university etc.  

• The bourgeoisie use the superstructure to maintain the inequalities between classes by brainwashing the working classes to accept the systems as the norm and accept their inferior position  

braverman

the pursuit of profit meant more automation of jobs in order to create factories and offices that were more productive. This lead to a deskilling of workers as more because it creates a single, undifferentiated working class (no gap between skilled or not)  

white collar jobs have become proletarianized by:

• clerical in administrative and office jobs

• Work becomes more routine and not require the same variety of response and less specialised 

• They lose the power they had to pursue their own interests and specialisms  

• The closer regulation of their jobs means greater knowledge of their subordination  

Weber

• He saw the division between the propertyless (the working class who sell their labour) and those who own property and can lve of the proceeds  

• The market situation as he saw it develops from people’s situation in relation to buying and selling their labour power in capitalist economies  

• Within the propertyless group (i.e. middle and working classes) they can sell their labour for a higher price (scarce jobs). These are the ones with an advanced market situation compared to other groups of workers due to their stronger position in the market  

Goldthorpe

Embourgeoisement is the theory that the movement of individuals into the bourgeoisie is as a result of their own efforts or collective action 

• To prove this thesis of ‘The Affluent worker’ in the 1960’s. He took a sample of 229 manual workers, plus a comparative group of 54 white collar workers drawn from various grades of clerical work  

• All the workers were working in Luton (a prosperous area in East England) in either Vauxhall, Stefko Ball Bearing Company and Laporte Chemicals  

• All of them were married and 57% were homeowners or buyers. They were highly paid and had similar pay to white collar workers  

savage et al

• there is a middle class and that social mobility can happen. Within the group though there is sub-division and therefore the middle classes are not a homogenised group  

The groups within the middle class occur dependant on the types of assets they have:  

1. Property – real property (real estate of land or buildings) and personal property (cars, furniture, stocks, shares)  

2. Organisational – holding significant positions in large organisations and companies  

3. Cultural – educational attainment and credentials 

GPERRV - P

Practicality - how feasible the research is to carry out

GPERRV - E

Ethics - the moral principles of carrying out research, ensuring the rights and welfare of participants are protected.

GPERRV - R

representatives - if the sample is an accurate reflection of the characteristics of the target population.

GPERRV - R

reliability - the repeatability of research results

GPERRV - V

validity - how accurate a finding is

primary and secondary dara

primary data - doing it yourself

secondary data - data which already exist

Pilot studies

serves in being a trial run of a piece of work, doing it on a smaller scale to test feasibility, time, cost, and improve the study design.

Operationalisation

referring to breaking down of a concept measurable

e.g. relgious into: if they believe in god or go to places of worship

sampling frame

a list of all people in the target population from which a small sample will be selected e.g. a register for shcool

random sampling (probability sampling)

all people in the target population have an even chance of being selected

non-random sampling (non probability sampling)

the sample is chosen specifically by the researcher because of their characteristics

stratified sampling

split into characteristics and then selected from them randomly. this leads to a representative sample but does take a lot of time

snowball sampling

the researcher asks for people for their study of other’s contacts. this can lead to similar characteristic

volunteer sampling

when people take part to volunteer for the study. can lead to certain characteristics based on extravert and area of advertisement

opportunity sampling

using people who are there at the time of study. can lead to specific people being more often such as school kids after school

purpose sampling

requiring a specific type of people to fit the bill e.g. goths qu

quota sampling

when a ceetain amount of groups need to be filled

interpratists

people who study with qualitative data

positivists

people who study with quantitative data

questionaires

• A questionnaire is a set of pre-determined standardised questions, distributed by hand, mail or the internet. 

•  They are designed for self-completion, and they are standardised (meaning everyone is asked the same questions in the same order). 

3 types of questionaires

open, closed and attitudinal (scale)

social desirability bias

changing your view if they know it is you taking it  

respondant validation

clarifying answers

structured interviews

• A structured interview often contains a set of pre-determined questions 

• These questions are closed questions and are often carried out in a standardised way 

• This is to reduce differences between interviews  

statistical data

• A numerical form of data which there is to types of:  

• Official – this is official data such as the census and British crime survey  

• Non-official – this is nonofficial data produced by commercial enterprises like profits of businesses 

content analysis

• An approach that analyses documents and text to establish key patterns and trends within them  

• This is done by the researcher generating pre-determined categories and then tallying the amount of times these occur, generating quantitiative data 

• easy to establish patterns and trends

  • there is a lack of versheten

semi-structured interviews

1. open ended questions, with qualitative data collected

2. high in validity

3. hard to do and takes a long time

unstructured interviews

an open ended, formal interview, very flexible and allow for a conversation

adv: high validity, as able to prompt and probe and very ethical

dis: takea a long time to do and analyse, interviewer bias

group interviews / focus groups

an interview which includes more than one participant

adv: participants can bounce ideas of each other, able to gain verstehen

dis: social desirability bias, may be impractical when analysing / people sound the same

observations:

covert and over:

def: involves the researcher being in the natural environment, watching their characteristics and behaviour

covert: not being aware of research. adv: their true characteristics. dis: can be seen as unethical

overt: being aware of research. adv: ethical dis: social desirability bias, may change when studied

participant and non-participant

participant: within the study group. adv: feel of the group . dis: danger of becoming to involved, ethical concerns if dangerous

non-participant: watching from a distance / blending in. adv: reduces bias and change in attitudes. dis: can be difficult to see results when hiden, unethical if a private area

Royal commission on the distribution of income

the poorest 20% receive less than £13,000 a year

however the richest receive over triple (£52,000)

the government reduced the highest sector of income tax from 80% to 40%

institute for fiscal studies

the higher class holds more wealth, showing economic inequality

the top 10% hold over 40% of wealth in 2007

the top 1% held 4.3% in 2007

Youth Cohort studies

the difference of middle class and working class in education:

types of schools: middle class go into oversubscribed and private schools, while lower class are in the ‘sink’ or underachieving schools

grades: middle class will be high and while lower class get low

post - 16 - middle class go into A levels and lower classes go into colleges and apprenticeships.

post 18 - middle class to Russel groups and lower class into lower status uni’s

Gillborn and Youdell

teachers believe that ability’s determined and cannot be changed

working class students complain that certain teachers have favourites, normally middle class students

Keddie

knowledge which was not within the spectrum was not seen as important for teachers.
The spectrum information is withed by teachers, denying their success

the top set teachers are seen as desirable and behaving socially and the lower class and inappropriate and negative.

Glasgow University Media group

They found that media:

1. presents disputes of working class jobs with negative words such as ‘demand’ and middle class disputes as ‘offers’

2. middle class professions show the issues which effect middle class on the news

Cohen

• working class boys hope to earn material success

• working class cannot achieve this due to cultural deprivation and dead end jobs

  • this leads to status frustration which creates a delinquent subculture (vandalism etc.)

The black report

the first study into morbidity and morality.

higher social classes tend to show lower rates of morality and morbidity. this can be due to:

1. better diet

2. better living conditions

   1. more use of healthcare opportunities.

Lobstein

The cost of healthy food is cheaper in richer areas than poorer areas

the cost of unhealthy food is cheaper in poorer areas than richer areas.

Parsons

ocial roles associated with age groups are vital for the smooth running of society:  

Childhood: 

• Children go through the process of socialisation, where they learn society’s norms and values. This teaches them what is acceptable which is important for society to function  

Adolescence:  

• Young people form independence from parents. Need to provide for themselves as adults, teaching them the skills required to leave home and work

• Youth rebellion is positive as it helps young people to become more independent from their parents. Youth culture is the bridge between childhood and adulthood 

Old age:  

• Elderly are less fit, therefore less able to perform at work, therefore gain a new role to help grandchildren when retired 

Durk

Beliefs on youth:  

There is a important transitory stage between childhood and adulthood for the following reasons:  

• Youth allows for the creation of their own personal identities and mechanisms of self regulation and self control  

• Youth is a time when individuals learn their own role in society: they move from ascribed roles to achieved roles 

Breaking away from the family can seem stressful, but youth culture provides a likeminded group of people that acts as a coping mechanism:  

• This helps set children apart from parents  

• It also provide them with a model of how to behave during this period 

Roszak

• A generation gap has developed between the old and young in the form of counter cultures or rebellious subcultures 

• These can be functional in that they unite young people regardless of social backround (e.g. class, gender and ethnicity) and reinforce the differences i roles performed by young, old and middle-aged people in society  

• Murdoch & McCron reinforced this by arguing that youth culture has helped society to regenerate itself by developing a set of new norms and values which have replaced the old, outdated ways of seeing the world associated with the older generation 

cummings and henry

• The marginalisation of the elderly has positive benefits for society  

• The ageing process and the social reaction to it is part of a ‘mutual process’ in which the elderly are encourage to abandon their occupational roles within labour  

• ageing leads to social incompetence which means that as people age, they use ego energy i.e. they lose their vitality as their health deteriorates 

If the elderly continue to work, it creates a number of negative consequences such as:  

• Their work is not carried out well

• Secondly, the elderly people block opportunities for younger people by continuing to occupy key positions. reducing fresh and innovative new ideas

• Thridly, it leads to frustration and fatigue for elderly people.  

• Therefore, elferly people themselves would benefit from social disengagement.

Marx

oung people are beneficial in 2 ways: 

• A reserve pool of labour which is easily hired and fired as required by capitalism, such as cheap labour can also help keep wages low  

• More enrgetic and provide new skills (that gain can be exploited by capitalist owners of businesses)  

The elderly are treated as:  

• Retire when they are no longer useful to the capitalist system  

• Act a free childcare providers enabling young members of society to work in capitalist businesses (which ultimately benefits the ruling class) 

phillipsons

• The elderly have been used as a reserve pool of labour that is easily exploitable for ruling class profit 

• The logic of capitalism, which is about exploiting workers and consumes for profit, is incompatible with the needs of the elderly  

Why are they seen as a burden?: 

1. They are perceived to have a lack of disposable income and money to spend  

2. They aren’t as productive as a young person which capitalists resent  

3. They are seen as a drain on resources (in terms of welfare and health provision)