Htet Lin

Professor Ghazarian

Sociology 001

15 November 2017

Project 1 Video Analysis

Our economy grows each day with two different type of job markets. One job market with

minimum wage labor and the other job market with high paying labor. The high paying job

market requires either a Bachelors, Masters, or Doctorates degree to meet the job positions

demands. Since most people strive for a high paying job, the amount of college graduates will

increase significantly. However, not only do these students must put their best effort in their

studies, but they will also have to pay a high amount of tuition. As our society is divided into

both low-income and the high-income class, not every student will be able to afford their degree.

For example, the video named, College Graduation Rates for Rich and Poor Divided by

Melissa Korn states that the rates of graduation in the wealthy class have increased remarkably,

while the rates on graduation of the lower class havent showed much of a difference.

In the video, Korn includes that students who comes from the families in the top income

bracket has increased their graduation rate by seventy-seven percent compared to forty-percent in

the last forty years. As for the families in bottom income bracket, Korn explains that there was

only a bit of increase that rise from six-percent to nine-percent. Korn continues to state that

students who are from the top income bracket will be able to get well-paying jobs since they

have the funds to extend their education, while students that are from bottom income bracket will
not be able to access well-paying jobs because they do not finish their education as they are

unable to afford the funds.

Comte would in a sense relate this video towards social statics because it consists of two

different social classes which are the top income bracket and low income bracket. These two

brackets are held together by society in an order where the top income bracket comes before the

low-income bracket. Comte theory of social statics can be related to paradigm as it centers on

keeping the social order and the way that social classes communicate. From the video, Comte

would see that those who are in the top income bracket has more authority over the low-income

bracket. This will then show that the low-income bracket will have no choice but to stay in the

position that they are in. With higher authority above them, they will struggle to find high paying

labor.

Marx would view this video as capitalism, where the wealthy class would only focus on

their own benefits with the labor provided by hard working lower class. He would consider the

low-income bracket students who cannot finish their education to be the ones that does all the

labor for the top-income bracket students who could afford the education. He would then

interpret the video by stating that the social order between the two income classes are not equal

as the higher income will be able to access high paying jobs and the lower income will not. He

would also include that while the higher income will be progressing on their wealth, the lower

income class will stay the same as they are not given any profit or achievement of labor

performed for the higher income class.

Durkheim would set this video as an example of an interdependent system. She would

explain that both the wealthy income and the poor income will need each other to keep the

society equal. Without the wealthy income class, there will be no wages given to the lower
income class to compensate for their hard work. The lower class will not have the funds to

financially support themselves. The wealthy income class will also need the lower income class

to provide them with labor because without the lower income class, they will not be able to run

their factories or other manufacturing companies. Without the labor of lower income class, their

companies will fail and shut down. For both social classes to function, they will need to be

dependent on each other to keep the process going.

The most paradigm that is represented in the video is the conflict perspective. The conflict

perspective differs from that of the functionalist perspective in that it essentially separates

society into two varying social classes-- the rich and the poor. This perspective focuses on how

the rich use their power and status to exert their dominance over those who are below them in

terms of social class. In this video, those who are in the wealthy class can finish their education

by age twenty-four because they are able to afford the tuition. The lower-class students end up

dropping out of school because they can no longer continue their education due to insufficient

funds. Since the wealthy class can afford their degree, they are given access to well-paying job

positions. As the lower income class are not able to earn their degree, they will not be given

access to well-paying job and will be stuck working for the wealthy income class.
 Works Cited

Korn, Melissa. Big Gap in College Graduation Rates for Rich and Poor, Study Finds. The Wall

Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 3 Feb. 2015, www.wsj.com/articles/big-gap-in-

college-graduation-rates-for-rich-and-poor-study-finds-1422997677.