1. Based on the arguments presented in Readings 6.1 and 6.2, which social class wrote the Constitution, and which class was excluded and not allowed to participate in this process? In your comment, make sure you clearly specify the difference between the two classes by giving examples from the readings.

Based on the arguments presented in readings 6.1 and 6.2, the wealthy upper class white males who owned land and was able to vote were the ones who help write the constitution and the people of African descent, Native Americans and women were excluded from writing the constitution. The guidelines that was in place was so steep that even when it came to white males that can vote if they did not meet all requirements they were excluded.

1. Would say that the social class structure of early United States society, was the same as ours today, or different? Explain.

I feel that the social class structure of the early United States is just about the same as ours today. The only difference with today is women and minorities are able to vote. However, when it comes to power only the rich people that owns the properties, the business , etc have majority of the say so. The only thing that helps keep things kind of in place is our system of check and balances. This help create a bit of fairness but truly not much.

1. Why were the people who wrote the Constitution so afraid of democracy? Hint: think about how to answer this question by discussing it in terms of social classes.

I believe the people who wrote the constitution was afraid of democracy because they knew with democracy everyone, poor, minority and women now had equal say so as they did. In the reading it talks about how the wealthy basically viewed poor people as people who were in debt and pretty much viewed money as paper. So probably to them they don’t want people who they believe does not see value in money to have a say so over the government.

1 . To me, the most shocking statistic in the reading was the growth of the richest 400 Americans’ wealth during 2001-2008, which went from $700 billion to $1.6 Trillion. Shortly after that, the author revealed that about 145,000 Americans are “thousands of times richer than the poorest quintile.” I did some quick google searches to find what those stats look like now, and found that at the end of 2021 the 1% owned $45.9 trillion in wealth. I knew that the wealth gap was large, but I had no idea how extreme it was.

2. I think its clear that the wealth gap plays a huge role in how social issues are treated (or ignored) in America. The reading even mentioned this. Because of the donations by corporations and billionaires to political campaigns, their interests are often given much higher priority, to the point where many normal people feel that there isn’t a truly effect way to have their voices heard.

A real world example of the wealth gap’s dynamic is the increase in anti-homeless architecture in New York City, especially in wealthy areas. Many wealthy people like to pretend that the poor and homeless don’t exist rather than use their money to help fix the problem of homelessness. The increased number of homeless people being forcibly removed from subway stations where they sleep is another example of this.

1.) The term “Social Class” is often used amongst many citizens throughout the country, but for good reason. Not only does it allow an individual to start thinking about their current financial situation, but mostly how they compare to others. “Working,” “Middle,” “Upper,” etc… are all but a few of the labels that are used in order to categorize where people think they are financially. But how and why people pick certain labels are questionable. This is because you have to consider what factors does someone think about in order to determine how they classify their amount of wealth. With this being said, in readings 4.1 and 4.2, each article revolves around the idea of social class. I notice that they both share the similarity of using graphs as a visual representation of data. They also share the similarity of classifying social class by using household income. Lastly, each graph on both sides consists of having a “trend” or varying in data based on different things in relation to what they show. On the other hand, they differ from each other as well. Reading 4.1 talks about how people determine their social class, whether it be by household income or education level. It’s data is taken from Gallup, who has surveyed American’s for the sole purpose of understanding where they would place themselves in the social class spectrum. While reading 4.2 shifts focus on using New York’s subway and uses the different train lines and their stops to give an estimate on what people who live there make within a year. They use this to show a means of classification because you would then realize that people who live in a particular place make more money within a year compared to those elsewhere. Another difference that I noticed is reading 4.1 uses 5 labels for classification of people; lower, working, middle, upper-middle, and upper. Not only does this clearly help to understand various groups and create easy understanding within the graph but also, they are each color coordinated. For instance, when you observe the graph, the color grey would indicate “working” or dark green means “upper.” For reading 4.2, it has not real coloring on the graph to indicate anyone is of any subcategory. Depending on the subway train you picked, it will only show the two boroughs that the train passes through and the household income of someone for a particular stop. Lastly, reading 4.1 uses bars in their display of data whilst 4.2 uses a line graph.

2.) The train station that is closest to my house is the L line. The social class that tends to live within my neighborhood are lower, working, and middle. The highest amount someone in my borough (Brooklyn) makes is 67,946 in Graham Ave. and the lowest is apparently 12,288 in Sutter Ave. With this information in mind, I am honestly not surprised by the answer because of how I see people are within my neighborhood. Although people within my neighborhood have jobs and work on a daily basis but you can see that they still struggle. My block mostly consists of old cars, you’ll only see a couple of people who own a car of recent dating and trendy branding such as BMW or Mercedes Benz. Not to mention, people here do own homes but they aren’t lavishly renovated and have looked the same for years. Not to mention, most of their jobs consists of labor that requires you to really work hard to make ends meet. To name a few; Uber, construction, MTA, etc…

3.) Based on reading 4.2, the pattern that I notice in regards to social classes in New York is some boroughs have people who make a lot within a given year compared to others regardless of the stop. For instance, for the L line, it makes it’s way between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Some places are typically known for being more wealthy than others. The highest amount in Manhattan is 150,110 in 14 st. 6th ave, whilst the highest in Brooklyn is 67,946 in Graham Ave. Not only is this a significant difference but it is also safe to say that depending on where you are, the statistics change.

1. The mainstream argument says that due to the war on drugs the racial disparities in drug conviction and sentences reflect nothing more than the government’s zealous efforts to address rampant drug use in poor minority communities. This is not correct at all. The real reason for this is because President Ronald Regan had not launched his response to the issue of crack cocaine until 1928, well before crack became an issue in the media or an issue within the black community.
2. Studies show that people of all races use and sell drugs at similar rates. But studies also show that white people, particularly white youths are more likely to be connected with drug crimes than a person of color. But you would not know this due to the fact that jails and prisons are overflowing with black and brown drug offenders.