Research Paper on:
Canada, Social Class, and Inequality

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
to the class status of a particular group, which has historically been largely determined by the groups ethnicity or race (Macionis & Gerber, 2006). In sociology, the conflict perspective  is an attempt to understand the group discord that occurs by the protection of ones status at the expense of another. One group will resort to various means to  preserve a preferred social status through socioeconomic prestige, consolidation of power (political and financial), and control of resources. In Canada, even though its impact is frequently minimized, social inequality  exists, but because the majority of citizens associate exclusively with members of their own class, they are often unaware of the significant role social inequality continues to play (Macionis &  Gerber, 2006). An inadequate distribution of wealth remains "an important component" of Canadas social inequities (Macionis & Gerber, 2006). Wealth is the amount of money or material  items the an individual, family, or group controls and ultimately determines the status a particular class enjoys (Macionis & Gerber, 2006). Canada has four social classes, and the wealth  is not distributed equally between them. The stratification that exists further subdivides these classes into the "haves and the have-nots," with the haves wielding the greatest power (Macionis &  Gerber, 2006). First, there is the predominantly Anglo upper class, in which most of the wealth has been inherited; they comprise approximately 3-to-5 percent of the Canadian population (Macionis  & Gerber, 2006). Next, there is the middle class, which has the greatest concentration of Canadians, nearly 50 percent with upper-middle class subdivisions generating white-collar incomes of between $50,000  and $100,000 while the rest are earning reasonable livings in less prestigious white-collar jobs or as skilled blue-collar laborers (Macionis & Gerber, 2006). The working class represents about 33