Chapter 9. Social Inequality
9.2. Social Inequality
Sociologists define social class as a grouping based on the relationship to the means of production or productive property (i.e., capital). However, individuals’ subjective experience of class in 21st century Canada is defined largely by the sense of sharing similar social characteristics like wealth, income, education, occupation, and lifestyle. As noted above, there is dispute within sociology about the relative importance of different criteria for characterizing economic class position. Whether the Marxist emphasis on property ownership is more important than the Weberian emphasis on gradations of occupational status is a matter for debate. Each definition captures some aspects of the experience of inequality in modern society but misses others. Either way, the concept of class implies a shared standard of living based on social factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation. These factors also affect how much power and prestige a person has. In most cases, having more money means having more power, privileges, and opportunities.
Standard of Living
“When you’ve set up a place to sleep for the night, someone comes along and threatens you or forces you to leave, it’s no way to live. It’s tiring to be forced to move every day or every night when you’re cold and wet and have no place to go.” (Testimony of Drug War Survivors member Harvey Clause, as quoted in Hollett, 2015)
In the last century, Canada has seen a steady rise in the standard of living: the level of wealth available to acquire the material necessities and comforts to maintain one’s lifestyle. Osberg (2021) reports that in the post-war era, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in Canada went from $16,179 in 1946 to $60,918 in 2019; an increase in standard of living of almost 400%.
The standard of living is unevenly distributed, however, based on factors such as income, employment, class status, poverty rates, and affordability of housing. Because standard of living is closely related to quality of life, it can represent factors such as the ability to afford a home, own a car, and take vacations. It affects health and longevity.
Similarly, access to a standard of living that enables people to participate on an equal basis in community life is not equally distributed. The irony of rising standards of living is that one does not have to live in absolute poverty — “a severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information” (United Nations, 1995) — to be marginalized and socially excluded. Relative poverty refers to the minimum amount of income or resources needed to participate in the “ordinary living patterns, customs, and activities” of a society (Townsend, 1979). People do not need to be destitute to experience the exclusions of living in relative poverty in a wealthy society like Canada.
In Canada, a small portion of the population h