by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: June 03, 2008

Class permeates every aspect of a person's life; from their education to their occupation, from their expectations of life to their life expectancy. Britain is often accused of being a class-obsessed nation, but is it any surprise given the impact that class has on a person's life chances? The likelihood is that the class that you are born into will be the class you grow into as an adult. Obviously there are exceptions, but the fact is that it is incredibly difficult for those at the bottom end of the social scale to ascend, whilst those at the higher end of the scale tend to remain there.

Money, power, and culture all play a part in maintaining the class system. Capitalism is based on exploitation, so of course there are going to be winners and losers. However, another aspect of capitalism in Western societies is the idea of meritocracy; the belief that those with the most ability will succeed whatever the odds. Clearly, though, infants born to a relatively well-off, middle-class family have a head start over those born to poor, uneducated parents. Indeed, education is generally regarded as the most important tool in enabling people to escape poverty. Yet, in the U.K. at least, there are huge disparities between good' schools and bad' schools, with the latter often located in deprived areas; the very areas that need more investment and a better standard of education. Middle-class parents tend to be more well-informed and better able to take advantage of the system than their working-class counterparts, and so consequently their children often receive a better standard of education, or at least attend better performing schools. Those from poorer backgrounds are left in under-performing schools, which are often lacking in resources, resulting in poorer children being unable to fulfil their potential.

The government places great emphasis on the importance of choice' for individuals. It seems that we are no longer simply members of a community who use local services, but rather consumers who are expected to decide which services are best for us, based on assessing the information provided. That is all well and good for those who have the ability to access and understand such information, but it means that those who do not will be left with substandard services and little choice in the long-term. This is only too evident in the education system, as well as in access to health and social care.

In terms of employment traditional working-class jobs have all but disappeared only to be replaced with low-paying service sector jobs. Consequently, the working class seems to have evolved into an underclass'. In those communities decimated by the economic reforms of the 1980s, there are people who have not been employed for a long time, and cannot get work because there is no work to get. Their children are born into poverty, they often do not receive a good education, have low expectations of themselves, do not get jobs or get poorly-paid work and so the cycle of poverty continues. Class divisions persist in this post-industrial world, and with the growing economic prowess of India and China it is essential for countries in the West to keep up in economic, technological and scientific fields, and so our workforce needs to be increasingly adaptable and highly skilled. However, the danger is that the gap between the haves' and the have-nots' will simply increase further, which will undermine any sense of unity our society has.

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