[3] Opportunities in this sense refer to the extent to which one has access to resources, both tangible ones such as food, clothing and shelter, and intangible ones such as education and health care.
[8] While some of those factors, like age, race or gender, are random,[8] Weber stressed the link between life chances and the non-random elements of the three-component theory of stratification – how social class, social status and political affiliation affect each individual's life.
In terms of agency and structure, life chances represent the structure, the factors that one has no control over; whereas one's life conduct - values and beliefs, attitude to risk taking, social skills, or more generally, free willed choices about one's behavior - represent the factors one has control over.
Overall, in societies emphasizing ascription, opportunity is relatively low and status (in the sense of prestige in the community) is often inherited.
A very important factor affecting life chances is housing and the general inequalities in the real-estate market.
[15] Poorer housing will affect health, available facilities, the likelihood of being a victim of crime, and many other aspects of life.
Therefore, in general, the middle and upper classes have far greater life chances available than the less advantaged groups.
One of these resources includes a family's social ties and the ability for a person with well connected parents to benefit greatly in the status attainment process.
This encompasses how both ascribed and achieved factors combine, because each individual enters an occupation based on the way their parents’ status produces advantages and disadvantages, their own efforts and abilities, and a degree of luck.
"[19] This program was made to ensure that inequalities in children's learning are tackled before problems can occur and separate them from peers.
In order to do so, this program gives parents in lower classes the expertise they need to effectively help their children's learning in a home environment so that they are well prepared when they enter school.
Essentially what it means is that individuals can tell themselves something like, "I'm lower class, my family has always been lower class, there's no chance I'm ever going to be well off" and although this statement had the potential to not end up being true, it became true simply because the individual believed it would be so and through his attitude and lack of self-esteem, made it his reality.
If you identify as low social class and believe you are most likely never going to be anything else, this will affect your life conduct in a myriad of ways.