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Mary Jane Yonzon August 29, 2018

Philosophy of Law

1.
Socioeconomic status, being measured based on combination of income, education and
occupation, is commonly defined as the social status or class of a person. Wide-range
examinations by social scientists thru analyzing and gathering socioeconomic status often reveal
inequalities in access to resources and advantage towards issues related to privilege, power and
control1. Similarly, communities with low socioeconomic status have higher rates of
malnourishment, infant mortality, health and social issues, including rates of crime and poverty2.
Inevitably, socioeconomic status affects a person’s success in several aspects of life.
In comparison with the game we’ve done in class, a high socio-economic status carries a
gainful head start for the elite groups of society. In a Philippine society setting, social class of a
person can easily be perceived right after birth, whereas, early child’s needs are either sufficient
or deficient---such phase of nurture is very crucial to a person’s flourishment as a human being.
As a result, the educated, well-resourced, well-nourished, rich and powerful people are
the ones taking the vital role of control and influence in the society. They are the ones being
considered ‘very successful’ with their living. Apparently, their socioeconomic status has
brought them to the top of Philippine social hierarchy.

1
“Socioeconomic status”. American Psychological Association.2018. http://www.apa.org/topics/socioeconomic-
status/
2
“An Introduction to Socioeconomic Status”. ThoughtCo. December 3, 2017.
https://www.thoughtco.com/socioeconomic-status-3026599
MARY JANE A. YONZON August 29,
2018
JD-1B
Team SKL

2.
“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost
always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you
superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”, a well-known quotation of
the 19th Century British politician Lord Acton3 can be considered as a summary of the menace of
‘power’ in our society.

Personally, I consider ‘Power’ as a social element that gives a person or group of people
a privilege or right to be of authority, control, influence or supremacy towards their fellow
people in the society. Thus, it can be used to oppress others.

As to what have commenced during the game, the teams who are privileged for an
advantage in a seemingly ‘social race’ are also fortunate to be able to step on a track that gives
them a power to make or change a rule. Resembling our current social order, there are people
who has the control and power to make and break rules in order to gain favor for themselves.
At most instances, oppression happens when the ‘powerful’ gets corrupted by the entity
itself, making them greedy and afraid to lose it.
However, there has been an instance during the game that a seemingly losing team are able
to progress and advance their phase through the help of arbitration. Relatively, there is an
element of ‘arbitration’ in our society that may pull up the underprivileged people. There are
people and elements in our society who has this power, given it is appropriately used rather that
abused---it can be embodied by the government and/or the justice system.

3
“Lord Acton Quote Archieve”. Acton Institute. 2018. https://acton.org/research/lord-acton-quote-archive

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