The Concept of 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:
o good health care
o longevity
o a good job
o security
o status
o wealth
o power
o prestige
• 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)