Answer to Question #230979 in Sociology for NEO

Question

Apply Marx's metabolic rift and Weber's rationalization to analyze and explain the nature of COVID-19 related pollution and indicate how this is similar to other types of environmental pollution. How would this affect vulnerable groups?

Answer 1

Karl Marx based his conflict theory on the idea that modern society has only two classes of people: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The Bourgeoisie are the owners of the means of production: the factories, businesses, and equipment needed to produce wealth. The Proletariat are the workers. According to Marx, the bourgeoisie in capitalist societies exploit workers. The owners pay them enough to afford food and a place to live, and the workers, who do not realize they are being exploited, have a false consciousness, or a mistaken sense, that they are well off. They think they can count on their capitalist bosses to do what was best for them. Like other types of environmental pollution, COVID-19 has affected adversely the vulnerable population in the U.S. for instance, the poor, such as the homeless who can not afford healthy foods on the streets ends up having preexisting health conditions that puts them at a high risk for being affected by the virus. Their risky healthy conditions has made a majority of them to succumb to the COVID-19.