"people like us"

After watching this video, I felt so bad for the women Tammy at the end. I feel like even if she tried to get out of her lower class it is just about impossible. Im sure like many other people in America, the class system only sometimes allows for those in the lower class or even the middle class to become more than what they are. Unfortunately, many of these people will stay in their class for generations to come, like Tammy father and now Tammy. Their are very little opportunities for the a class to rise to a higher one. The class system in America is based mainly on money. The choices you make, the food you eat, where you live, education, and who you socialize with reveal your class. Because all of these factors, the video explained how America can be compared to a caste system. For example, the upper class and lower class never mix. This also limits opportunties to become a higher class. Their are also " limitations for the poor", and i think that this can be one of them. Without the "mixing" of higher and lower class, they do not know the customs of the social set they wish to be in. This also made me think about how maybe society creates these limitations, and takes away the opportunities for the lower class is because we almost need them in society like in Herbert Gans, argument. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the class system in society determines who we are.

Posititve Functions of the Undeserving Poor: Uses of the Underclass in America

In Herbert Gans article, he speaks about some functions of the underclass or poor people in society that are not normally spoken about. Society judges the poor by a stereotype, and feel the poor can be a threat to those in mainstream society. Gans notes that because of all the functions of the poor, wheather they are positive or negitive, society need the poorer class in society. Some functions he speaks of the microsocial functions, economic functions, normative functions, political functions and macrosocial functions. When reading through each, I was able to understand more of what he was explaining. Then I thought about how sometimes in society people try to fight to make the richer, less rich, and make the poor, not so poor. Maybe those who are rich and create the majoirty of the laws in our society can stop the gap between rich and poor but instead choose not too. When looking at things from this perspective and given the resons that Gans stated, it almost makes sense that society really does need that gap between the rich and poor even if it is partially out of selfish rich people reasons. This made me realize poor really can be looked at almost essential to our society and our class system in America.

globalization

So, this chapter really caught my attention is so many ways. The connection discussed in the chapter between globalization and crime was the most interesting. The globalization of crime comes in so many different forms with so many different variations of its severity. It can go from something so serious as selling sex slaves from country to country to something that could be considered minor like the selling of fake designer merchandise on the streets of some neighborhoods. One crime that was discussed in the chapter that I never really thought about as globalization was drugs. Drugs are sold, traded, and then sold in our country. But where does the drug trade start? The networks of production, distribution or protection are all a part of globalization. Each plays a major and necessary part in the sales of drugs. Drugs are usually produced in another country other than the United States. If they are produced in the United States they are sold in the country as well as outside the country. The distribution, is transferred from the production place to where its demand is greatest which would equal more money. The protection of drugs and globalization I'm still stuck on so someone should help me :) & the one thing that keeps the drug trade, the cartels, and the money flow continue is the demand for drugs. In chapter six, " About 8,000 Americans try drugs for the first time every single day." Drugs and crime itself are what keeps the criminal justice system alive. With crime, deviance, and the rules that society creates whether official or unofficial, allows for the criminal justice systems existence. Without these, their would be no criminal justice.