Assignment:
Explain how an individual's social class position at birth may affect what Max Weber called "life chances"?*
- 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 a (a) caste system, (b) a class system, and (c) a one-party Communist system such as China.
By "life chances" Weber meant the ability of an individual to attain the "good things" a society values: good health care, longevity, a good job, security, status, wealth, power, and prestige.