CLASS CONFLICT

Conflict between different classes in a community resulting from different social or

economic positions and reflecting opposed interests.

According to Karl Marx, class conflict and struggle occur because of the
economic organization of most societies. According to the Marxist perspective,
class conflict and struggle are inevitable in capitalist societies because the interests
of workers and capitalists are fundamentally at odds with each other. Capitalists
accumulate wealth by exploiting workers while workers maintain or advance their
own well-being only by resisting capitalist exploitation. The result is conflict and
struggle, which is reflected in all aspects of social life, from unionizing efforts to
strikes to political campaigns to immigration policies.

INCOME DISPARITY

In economic context, it refers to the difference in wages of people

INCOME DISTRIBUTION

The various levels of income existing within a given population

OVERVIEW OF THE TOPIC

Income distribution is a frequency distribution showing number of persons,

taxpayers or households classified by levels of income. The unequal distribution of
income is a major issue in many countries, mostly in developing countries and in
Pakistan it has been a burning since its birth. As the inequality in the distribution
rises, it divides the population into small groups with various differences among
them, thus fueling a conflict between them.

A social class is a homogeneous group of people in a society formed on the

combined basis of
1. Education
2. Occupation
3. Income
SO HOW IS INEQUALITY MEASURED?
There is no independent research organization to collect and analyse the data on
household income; the only source is the household survey carried out by the
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics but it has its limitations. Carrying surveys on income
inequalities are difficult.

"They are often suspect (the rich often do not want to tell their incomes),
incomplete (since these depend on smaller sample sizes) and often replete with
inaccuracies. That's when consumption (in economics it is the use of goods and
services by households) estimates come in handy.

The research carried out by LUMS for the recent Oxfam study, said Talpur, ended
up relying on non-income means to measure the level of inequality in the society.
"For example tax evasion; structure of taxes; rising prices of essential items and
how these affect the poor; comparing assets and road density of different
geographical locations," he said.

WHAT DOES EXTREME INEQUALITY DO TO SOCIETY?

Extreme inequality pervading in societies hurts all of us and makes getting out of
the quagmire of poverty all the more difficult. Social scientists say inequality:

 Corrupt policies
 Hinders economic growth
 Stifles social mobility
 Fuels crime
 Squanders talent
 Thwarts potential

IMF economists in an essay in The Occupy Handbook, which analyzes the

grassroots Occupy Movement, blame the yawning inequality for "destructive, self-
perpetrating spiral of social polarization, growing divisions" that resulted in the
crisis.
SOCIAL CLASS STRUCTURE OF PAKISTAN:

Place of residenceAnd have who have similar social values similar interest in life
and they behave a like haveapproximately equal position of respect or status in a
society.The social classes of Pakistan.
1. Upper social class
2. Middle social class
3. Working social class

1. UPPER SOCIAL CLASS.

The upper social class which generally have high level of income and belong to be
most high payingprofession and they live in most cleanest place of the country and
money will be no problem forthem and their size is 2% of the total society and
approximately 3.7 million they have 60% to 65% of money of the country.They are
actually
1. High status leadership
2. Big business man
3. Top management of the company

2.MIDDLE SOCIAL CLASS

The USC and MSC education are met different like USC study in foreign country
like oxford universityand MSC are study in local university of their country but
income size will found more different theirhouses are different their house are not
huge and not think for a huge house of Defence and think ahouse of Gulshan-e-iqbal
their population is 28% out of the total population their population is 53 to54
million of the total populationThey are actually
1. They are small to medium size business man.
2. Middle management
3. Low ranking govt officeAnd the big difference in USC and MSC is house
concentration they focus more to their house butUSC not so much home focus they
are less and MSC lot home focus

3. WORKING SOCIAL CLASS:

The WSC are not much more educated they are not in very accusative profession
their income is lowand they build one two room poorly houses, electricity not
available water etc. Their size is 70% outtotal population of Pakistan.They are
actually
1. They are very small size shop owner. Skill, semi skill & unskilled
2. Low grade govt staff (peons, driver)
3. Political workerUpper class, middle class, and lower class are Social classes
(broadly speaking).They are further sub divided into Rich rich, rich middle, and
rich lower classes, similarly, for middleand lower.

CLASS CONFLICTS WITH RESPECT TO PAKISTAN

Since Pakistan's Inception, the Populace has been plagued with the diabolical issue
of income distribution. The seriousness of this issue cannot be denied, since it has
been the root cause of constant upheaval in the society in general and also the
catalyst of constant unrest, distrust and sometimes violent protests. In other words
we have been compromised in a never ending stalemate, since there is no
significant trend of increase or decrease of income distribution in Pakistan, thus
this kind of uneven trend is giving rise to undesirable hybrid classes based upon
this income inequality. The initiation of such classes has led to an avalanche of
prejudice, discrimination and more disturbingly, exclusion of significant amount of
people from the nucleus of the society. It has also led to the formation of different
stratums among the people. With the passage of time this horrendous social
exclusion, disparity and discrimination has manifested into an ugly class conflict
amongst the people we see today in Pakistan.

FINDINGS & ANALYSIS

The regression model describes the relationship of socialization, stratification and

income disparity with class conflict. It explains how socialization, stratification
and income disparity affect class conflict. As we can see from the above equation
that income disparity, socialization and stratification is directly linked with class
conflict as all three variables have a positive relationship.

CONCLUSION

From the above argument, it is concluded that there is a marked class conflict in
the population of Pakistan based on the unequal distribution of income in Pakistan.
Corrupt officials, low number of honest taxpayers and resistance to change are
some of the factors which contribute to fuel this ongoing conflict among the
people. Pakistan is also facing a great threat from security point of view as well as
inefficient monetary policies, which also hinders economic growth. Hence the
people are divided into the various groups mentioned in the paper, according to
difference in income, status, amount of resources and other contributing factors.

According to the results, stratification among the people does not hold much
importance, but it is a minor contributing factor in the class conflict. Socialization,
however is an important variable in the class conflict, people of similar
backgrounds belong to a similar type of social status tend to socialize more than
people belonging to other classes. This is a common practice that people with
similar resources either material or symbolic will from a social group and tend to
exclude people who are different from them.