1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Social reproduction describes the reproduction of social structures and systems, mainly on the basis of particular preconditions in demographics, education and inheritance of material property or legal titles (as earlier with aristocracy).
[2] Education is an attempt at leveling the playing field by allowing those in poorer classes a chance to move up.
However, it fails in many critical ways; for example, education is costly: better schools mean better equipment, better books, and better teachers, all of which remain beyond the pay grade of the poverty line.
As the rich take in an increasing amount of the country's wealth, there is less and less for the general populace, resulting in poorer education.
These issues are rarely seen in higher classes, making it less likely for them to drop out and reject opportunities.
[5] The sociology of health and illness studies how social life affects morbidity and mortality rate, and vice versa.
Social reproduction is involved in this field when it comes to how inequalities affect the health of people in particular classes.
The greater the economic inequality, the more of a toll it takes on the health of the populace, from life expectancy to infant mortality, and in cases like the U.S., increasing rates of obesity.
The bottom 99% may be disinclined to visit doctors and take cough medicine for more serious illnesses, and are disadvantaged especially in cases of incurable illnesses like AIDS where constant medicating with expensive, non-subsidized drugs is the only way to sustain a normal life.
This can be attributed to the generally higher cost of healthful foods, a lack of education regarding healthy eating habits, and faster preparation times, causing fast foods, or other unhealthy alternatives to be consumed often for their ease of acquisition and generally low price.
This leads to long-term epidemiological problems in which children who become obese maintain their obesity into their adult lives, suffering from associated ailments such as heart disease, high blood pressure, increased risk for several types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, stroke, infertility, arthritis, breathing difficulties and/or depression.
All the while, their descendants will be raised in a fixed system that favors the elites, so they are bound to the same class they were born in.
This is seen as they suffer from the inability to pay bills some of which then find themselves living on the street, experiencing food insecurity as many families will find themselves going hungry least once a year, or lack of medical care where many cannot pay for medication or treatment for potentially fatal illnesses.
Those born into this system usually have a torch of labor passed on to them, and they follow the same profession their family did.
Those born into this class have the most diversity, either deciding to take up the torch or surpass their parents.