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Australia as a Classless Society

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“Australia is a Classless Society” Discuss.

It is this ideal that has in fact attracted many migrants to Australia over the course of its history. This essay will discuss some of the theories and definitions of class, then examine how they relate to Australian society, and whether Australia does indeed have a class system, arguing that in many ways, it does. It will discuss people’s perception of classes and their position in them, mobility between classes, and the impact of class on health, education and crime. It will show that there is a direct correlation between class and the level of crime, the health of an individual and the level of education attained. At its federation in 1901 the new nation of Australia was founded on principles of equality, although as Belinda Probert points out in her lecture ‘Class in 2001’, (Probert, 2001) this equality did not extend to women, Aborigines or people from non Anglo races. This egalitarian belief was founded on the notion of a fair and decent wage, an ideal proposed by Justice Higgins of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration in 1907, when he set the first minimum weekly wage. This wage 1 was to reflect the cost of living, the amount of money required by an average person for the basic necessities of life; food and water, housing and clothing. This was called the Harvester Judgment. What is class? It is a division in society of a group of people who all have a similar social and economic status. For Karl Marx this status was dependent on whether a person owned (capitalist or bourgeoisie) or used (working class or proletariat) the means of production. (Germov J. & Poole M. 2007), with the two groups being in conflict with the goals of the other (Marx K. 1847). Max Weber considered a person’s economic worth and life opportunities to be more important in class structure, arguing for more divisions of

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