In every society, some people have a greater share of valued resources – money, property, education, health, and power – than others. Patterns of unequal access to social resources are commonly called social inequality. Some social inequality reflects innate differences between individuals, for example, their varying abilities and efforts. Someone may be endowed with exceptional intelligence or talent or may have worked very hard to achieve their wealth and status. However, by and large, social inequality is not the outcome of innate or ‘natural’ differences between people but is produced by the society in which they live. |