ncome households (ôExplorations in Social Inequalityö).
Social stratification treats and rewards people unfairly, not based on their abilities and efforts but on their class and social status. Stratification essentially sizes people up according to their wealth, level of education, and other ôstatusö factors and pigeonholes their worth according to these superficial variables. The sad consequence is that as a result of being valued less because of their already-existing poverty, poor people are treated inequitably, thus compounding their disadvantage:
Class is sociologistsÆ major predictor of beliefs, behavior, life-styles and of life itself. When the Titanic [sank] in 1912, 60 percent of the first class survived, 40 percent of the second, and only 25 percent of the third (ôExplorations
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