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How one's social status at birth affects one's life chances.

Explain how an individual's ascribed social class position at birth may affect what Max Weber called life chances, or the ability of an individual to attain the following "good things" that a society values:
good health care
a good job
Describe how life chances may affect an individual's life goals (positive or negative).
In what ways may life chances be irrelevant?
Give examples of how the concept of life chances operates in the following systems:
a caste system
a class system
a one-party, Communist system (such as China)

Good health care
If you belong to a lower social class your access to health care is limited. In a caste system it may even be believed that you sickness is ordained by the gods. In a class system your access to health care will be determined by the amount of money you have. Even you are perceived as belonging to a lower social class such as African-American or Hispanic, if you have the money you will be treated. In a one-party system you pretty much are at the mercy of the government. Here you may be denied treatment based on ideology or finances but typically not because of social class.

In a caste system your longevity will be hindered if you are born into an extreme lower class such as the untouchable class in India. Otherwise, if you are somewhere in the middle longevity won't be affected much. In a class system results are mixed. Those in the upper classes enjoy more health care and yet at the same time have more access to luxury which might encourage laziness. The poor on the other hand typically are more obese at least in America due to a poor diet. In a one-class society your place of birth plays little role in longevity. It is your political choices after birth that have more of an impact. As a matter of fact if the one-party system is recently new and was formed out of revolution then having been born into the former upper-class system could be a death sentence of sorts.

Solution Summary

This is a discussion about social class at birth and how that affects the future of an individual's life. This discussion is based primarily on Max Weber's concept of life chances that are available based on social status. Over 950 words of original text.