SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN THE PHILIPPINES 1

“Social Inequality in the Philippines”

Randy Formaran

De La Salle University

February 27, 2012

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There are some situations that a government official hinders the rights of a

certain individual because of his social status. This situation lessens a citizen’s dignity

as a human being, it’s like the officials think that they’re higher than the civilian

because of their position in the society. A child’s future is to be largely determined by

social status, not brains, (Lone, 1979, Small Futures: Children, Inequality, and the

Limits of Liberal Reform) I therefore conclude that this statement is most likely to be

true since more children that have high social status grows to be more successful that

intelligent children that are not so lucky. This is social inequality. Social inequality

refers to a situation in which individual groups in a society do not have equal social

status, social class, and social circle. Social inequality has many fields such as the

individual’s origin, individual positions, achievements, race, sex, and many more.

People are classified in this field and are used to compare people and give recognition

to the superior person. The word social inequality is composed of two words mainly

social which refers to a characteristic of living organisms as applied to populations

humans and other animals, and Inequality which means that several things are not in

the same level or there is a superior one from comparing several beings. Social

inequality is also known as social biasness, social discrimination, social difference,

and many more.

Social biasness can be seen more often in our country. We can perceive

that the government is in favour of people that have good social status rather than

people in the lower class. For example, some politicians are not being caught by

traffic enforcers when they commit a driving violation, this is because of their
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position in the society. The support of the government is biased on the social status of

a citizen. There is no equality, unlucky children in poor families’ gets free education

and free education has a lower quality of education than private schools which

children with middle class families are enrolled into. Education should be distributed

equally, rich or poor, girl or boy, black or white, and even local or foreign. The rising

importance of dimensions such as age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, political

attitudes, and multiple choices to organize the notion of “life course” has made the

older concept appear obsolete, (Bogenhold, 1995, Focus on Economic Sociology) this

means that the citizens nowadays are categorized based on various fields and the view

on equality is now fading.

Let us now move on to social discrimination. Social discrimination is a

situation where a citizen with a better social status abused a citizen which is lower in

the aspects of education, finance, and such. Bullying and racism are examples of

social discrimination. Bullied people contribute to the number of suicide incidents in

the world. There are about 4,400 suicidal deaths per year, according to the CDC. For

every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14

percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have

attempted it. Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide

than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University. All of these deaths, just

because of bullying that are created by social discrimination.

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Last is social difference. Social difference is the categorizing of citizens based

on their certain aspects in the society. There are multiple types of social classes in the

Philippines, First is the high class which as also called as the wealthy and the elites.

Politicians, government officials and rich people are some of the citizens that belong

to the high class. These people have the income to do almost anything they want, they

are living their dream. Next is the middle class, these are people with jobs and are

earning enough money so they cannot be called poor or rich. These people have

money to use in their everyday needs but are not enough to be called as rich people.

According to Nikolai Tilkidjie, the best political community is formed by citizens of

the middle class, and that those states are likely to be well administered, in which the

middle class is large, and stronger if possible than both the other classes, or at any rate

than either singly; for the addition of the middle class turns the scale, and prevents

either of the extremes from becoming dominant. (Tilkidjie, Nd, The Middle Class as a

Precondition of a Sustainable Society) This means that a perfect state is composed of

people that came from the middle class because his will make a society wherein there

are no superior or inferior citizens. Last is the lower class, these are people with no

jobs or with non formal jobs and are earning no or low amount of money. These are

the drivers, housemaids, and such. These people usually have not graduated college or

high school which is the cause of their unlucky social status.

There are different causes of social inequality but let us concentrate on the two

main causes of social inequality according to Greg Duncan from the University of

California and Richard J. Murnane from Harvard University; education and culture.(
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Duncan and Murnane, 2008, Social Inequality and Educational Disadvantage) Both of

these aspects contribute to the social status of a citizen. Let us start with education.

Education is the stepping stone or foundation of a citizen’s financial capability and

establishes the ability to become self sufficient. The higher the level of education

attained, more opportunities in life can be taken. For example, a citizen finished

college with AB-Psychology as his course. This citizen has the choice to be a law

student which will lead him to become a lawyer, judge or a politician in the future or

as a medicine student and be a psychologist, psychiatrist or a teacher. Due to the

countless choices that an educated person can attain, this concept creates a ranking in

all citizens based on their education level and causes social inequality. Education can

classify citizens to what type of social class are they in; high, middle or lower class.

We will now move on to culture as the cause of social inequality. A country’s

culture will tell the country’s abundance and economic stability. Let us think of it as a

race, the leading countries that have abundant cultures are now economically stable

and gaps higher in technology while other countries are left because of the slow phase

of their culture. For example, take a look at the United States of America and our

country the Philippines. The United States of America learned to adapt and harness

the aura of the changing world; they moved on forward and feed their culture on the

way. The Philippines on the other hand has a different approach. The Philippines gain

the some of the culture of other countries, it adapts by clinging to the changes that

other countries make. Due to this, the Philippines benefit the other countries and make

them move faster in the race. Through this, social discrimination existed due to the
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level of a certain country. A hegemonic state now exists and when there is a

hegemonic state, there will always be third world countries. Every country is ranked

based on their economy, from third world countries to hegemonic states.

We now know what the causes of social inequality are. Let us move on to the

effects or impact of this problem. There are two categories of the impacts of social

inequality; on a certain citizen and on the society as a whole. First is on a certain

citizen. According to Professor Wilkinson, “individuals are so sensitive to inequality,

and how it gets ’under the skin’ to affect health. The main individual psychosocial risk

factors leading to ill health and premature death include low social status, lack of

friends, and difficult early life experience. Together these tell us about the stress

associated with the quality of the social environment, reflecting how far we feel either

appreciated and valued, or suffer anxieties and insecurities about whether others

regard us as unattractive, boring, stupid, or socially gauche.”(Wilkinson, Nd, The

Impact of Inequality) This means that social inequality affects the health of a person

physically and mentally.

Let us now move on to the society as a whole. There is only one impact of

social inequality to the society that I can think of, and that is the disintegration of

unity. Unity is an important aspect of a society. This is what makes a country stronger.

For example, look at the Republic of China. They are greatly united to each other and

they give importance to their nationality. This is what makes their country successful.

And now, look at our country, the Philippines. We are negatively

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separated by the social classes and this causes tragedies such as theft, corruption, drug

monopoly or just the dramatic increase of crime rate in our country. This is what

happens when unity is deprived from a society.

Social inequality, it is a disease of a society. If this problem continues to exist,

the unity of our society will vanish completely. Crime will eat our country instantly

and no one, even the government officials, can stop it. Imagine an apocalyptic

wasteland that is frequently seen in movies such as “The Matrix” and “Book of Eli”.

That may be the worst case scenario of our county if this problem lasts until the end

of time. There is one possible solution to this problem that I could think of, give equal

education to everyone in our country whether they are rich or poor. This is a counter

to the first cause of social inequality. Let us prove the statement “A child’s future is to

be largely determined by social status, not brains” wrong. When everyone has the

number of opportunities in life that they can choose from, no one will be low. This

can create a country made of professional citizens. Social inequality is resolved and at

the same time the country’s economy will improve. As soon as possible, resolve this

problem. We shall avoid the worst case scenario of having an apocalyptic wasteland

for a country and have a successful country instead.

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References:

Lone, R D. (1979), Small Futures: Children, Inequality, and the Limits of Liberal

Reform.

http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/strat.html

Bogenhold, D. (1995), Focus on Economic Sociology

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_4_60/ai_80802019/

Duncan, G. and Murnane, R. J. (2008), Social Inequality and Educational

Disadvantage

http://www.russellsage.org/awarded-project/social-inequality-and-educational-

disadvantage

Wilkinson, R. (Nd), The Impact of Inequality

http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/social_sciences/report-

45730.html