Social Status
As part of my AP Psychology summer school requirements, I was to participate in a survey. The survey asked of our opinions about social status and birth, namely that "Does being born in a high social status makes you a high class member? Is this person likely to be generous or mean? Selfish or selfless? Moral or lustful." I found myself writing addictedly. So I thought I'll share part of my thoughts on social status:
Social Status is how society looks at you when they are unconsciously comparing you to another individual. It's a pyramid, and at the top are Presidents, Senators, Captains of industries, Nobel Prize Scientist, Napoleon. And the bottom are those who know they are poor because they wasted their time away on Halo when they could have been reading _War and Peace_, or waste their tong in kissing when they could have debated, or waste their energy in sex when they could have played competitive sports.
In every aspect, while money certainly plays a role in defining who we are and how we can change in the future (as money equals to opportunity. This is undeniable), it does not determine our place in the pyramid.
Knowing where one is born does not help at all to know whether or not he is successful in the future. Kennedy went to Harvard, yet so too did my friend Tom, whose mother makes $30,000 a year. Yet Kathy went to UH, and her parents makes $200,000 a year, and she drives a BMW to school everyday. But undeniably, Kathy had many things Tom never dreamed of: a house, a room, a trip to Europe and a Hagia Sophia model from Middle East, a BMW. But what does possession matters when it is not your hands that created them?
People with high social status has the following:
1. An excellent education, bright mind, generous attitude, and selfless dream of doing something for his or her world.
and if a person has that, it's almost a guarantee that he'll have a great life.
The point is: money does not represent how high of a status a person is. Money is a by product of being in a high social status. It's similar to correlation vs. causation. Money does not make status. Status makes money.
Yours Sincerely,
N.
Social Status is how society looks at you when they are unconsciously comparing you to another individual. It's a pyramid, and at the top are Presidents, Senators, Captains of industries, Nobel Prize Scientist, Napoleon. And the bottom are those who know they are poor because they wasted their time away on Halo when they could have been reading _War and Peace_, or waste their tong in kissing when they could have debated, or waste their energy in sex when they could have played competitive sports.
In every aspect, while money certainly plays a role in defining who we are and how we can change in the future (as money equals to opportunity. This is undeniable), it does not determine our place in the pyramid.
Knowing where one is born does not help at all to know whether or not he is successful in the future. Kennedy went to Harvard, yet so too did my friend Tom, whose mother makes $30,000 a year. Yet Kathy went to UH, and her parents makes $200,000 a year, and she drives a BMW to school everyday. But undeniably, Kathy had many things Tom never dreamed of: a house, a room, a trip to Europe and a Hagia Sophia model from Middle East, a BMW. But what does possession matters when it is not your hands that created them?
People with high social status has the following:
1. An excellent education, bright mind, generous attitude, and selfless dream of doing something for his or her world.
and if a person has that, it's almost a guarantee that he'll have a great life.
The point is: money does not represent how high of a status a person is. Money is a by product of being in a high social status. It's similar to correlation vs. causation. Money does not make status. Status makes money.
Yours Sincerely,
N.