Citizenship and Social Class

T.H Marshall

 

“It saw the first big advance in social rights, and this involved significant changes in the egalitarian principles expressed in citizenship. But there were other forces at work as well. A rise of money income unevenly distributed over the social classes altered the economic distance which separated these classes from one another, diminishing the gap between skilled and unskilled labour and between skilled labour and non-manual workers, while the steady increase in small savings blurred the class distinction between the capitalist and the property less proletarian. Secondly, a system of direct taxation, ever more steeply graduated, compressed the whole scale of disposable incomes. Thirdly, mass production for the home market and a growing interest on the part of industry in the needs and tastes of the common people enabled the less well-to-do to enjoy a material civilisation which differed less markedly in quality from that of the rich than it had ever done before. All this profoundly altered the setting in which the progress of citizenship took place. Social integration spread from the sphere of sentiment and patriotism into that of material enjoyment. The components of a civilized and cultured life, formerly the monopoly of the few, were brought progressively within reach of the many, who were encouraged thereby to stretch out their hands towards those that still eluded their grasp. The diminution of inequality strengthened the demand for its abolition, at least with regard to the essentials of social welfare”.

            The third and last element in Marshall theory is social citizenship. He explained how an influx of money limited the separation between social classes giving opportunity to the less fortune. Opportunities in the social welfare services which included things such as education and medical treatment. It formed equality that put an end to the social classes’ inequality and status formed by the capitalist. This gave every individual within a community access to social goods ending the monopoly of the rich and allowing other to come within arm’s reach.

            I choose this passage because it shows that many countries all over the world are somewhat managed within a better system. The United States can learn from other countries like London in how to treat their communities a little better. Education and medical treatment has been a large issue in the United States for years in which makes you question where does the money that is taxed go? While the United States maybe a great country it can improve in social welfare services that can limit the social classes.