Sociology

Major Post Question Options (Please select at least one question from the list below):

The overall level of inequality in industrial societies is considerably less than that in agrarian societies of the past, or nonindustrial societies in the world today. On what evidence is this conclusion based? What are some of the most important reasons for this decline in inequality?
Why is it important to take age into account when trying to determine the extent to which wealth and income are equally/unequally distributed in a society?
In what ways are recruitment and promotion in modern industry similar to recruitment and promotion in the military?
In what ways can it be misleading to compare the income share of a particular group (e.g., lowest earning 20 or 40 percent of the population) over time (e.g., from 1980 to the present)?
Major Post: Your original post should be at least 150 substantive words. When answering the question(s), you should attempt to critically engage with the literature. This means going beyond a summary of what the textbook says about the topic. Rather, you should use that as a starting point for your own contribution.

ANSWER

The Inequalities in Industrial and Non-Industrial Societies

The levels of inequalities in the industrial societies are much lower compared to those of agrarian societies of the past or the non-industrial societies of the modern-day. This is because in agrarian societies, agriculture is the principal source of revenue, and the primary factor of production, which is land, determines the income (Patel, 2021). The higher the land’s productivity, the higher the income and overall prosperity. Therefore, the difference in property between the people with large tracts of land and those with small tracts of land is very big.

On the other hand, in industrial societies, there is a decline in the level of inequalities in the industrial societies. This is because the industrial societies came with the mechanical invention for factories and put an end to handcraft methods (Allen, 2017). People began working in factories as a result of mechanical inventions and new methods of manufacturing. This included not only men but also women and children. This led to the creation of different working sectors where people specialized in different tasks; for example, some were machine operators while others were plant managers with different wages. Ideally, the people were well distributed in these sectors within the industrial society; hence, the inequalities in terms of wealth were bridged as the inequalities only existed between groups working in different sectors unlike individuals, as was the case in the agrarian societies.

References

Allen, R. C. (2017). The industrial revolution: A very short introduction (Vol. 509). Oxford University Press.

Patel, R. R. (2021). Agrarian Relations, Landlessness and Inequality: Case Study of Irrigated and Unirrigated Regions of Undivided Kalahandi. Journal of Land and Rural Studies, 9(1), 62-82.