14.5% of Americans are stuck below the line of poverty. The reason is America’s lack of economic mobility. There is another social structure quite contrary (but probably quite similar) to the one in United States and it’s called the caste system. The caste system is a social structure which defines you by the class you were born into. Other than a few differences the United States is almost exactly like the caste system. For example, the United States and the caste system lack of class mobility, leaving people below the line of poverty, though the law could be used to help people get out of their caste.
The caste system is a simple social structure. It consists of five classes, including the untouchables. The untouchables are the lowest class in the caste system. The name itself explains who the untouchables were – a group of people who are looked upon as the worst people in the caste. Like the American social structure, no one in the caste system gets to pick their class. In the caste system once you are born into a class you stay in that class for the rest of your life. To sum up, the caste system is a social structure that lasts a person’s whole life.
Many people hate the caste system. The people hated it so much (mostly due to the fact that it leaves them in the financial crisis and hinders them from personal and professional development) they banned discrimination within the caste by law.
The United States is almost exactly like the caste system. The United States has a lack of class mobility, though the caste system has no class mobility at all. A CNN reporter named King says “while the government promotes wealth building for some it actually discourages wealth building for the poor.” He then says “they have to trade their long term well-being for short term assistance. Those 14.5% of Americans are living below the poverty line because they cannot get out of the label that was placed on them since their birth.
In conclusion, the near impossibility of Americans to move from the lowest class makes the American social structure more and more similar to the caste system.
Works cited:
Rao, Jasmine. “The Caste System: Effects on Poverty in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.” American.edu. Global Majority E-Journal, December 2010. Web. 13 April 2016.
Brown, Alexander. Elwes, Jay. “How does india’s caste system work?” prospectmagazine.co. prospectmagazine.co, 13 November 2014. Web. 13 April 2016.
Hargreaves, steve. “Making it into the middle class.” CNN. CNN, 13 November 2013. Web. 18 April 2016.
Gongloff, Mark. “45 Million Americans Still Stuck Below Poverty Line.” economyincrisis.org. Economyincrisis.org, 21 February 2015. Web. 29 April 2016.