Weberian age inequality

• Weber 


  Elderly and young have lower status and power in our society. This means they are seen as less valuable due to cultural stereotypes. Youth have low class as they have not accumulated wealth yet. Retired people lose their market position through retirement. Youth have less power as they have not yet moved up the hierarchy.
• Marx criticises Weber for making it too complicated and de-emphasising the similarities between the working class. Playing into the hands of capitalism by letting age divide the working class.
• Barron and Norris


  Young people suffer inequality as they are concentrated in the secondary labour market which is characterised by poor pay, insecurity, and no ladder of promotion.
• New Rightists such as Murray disagree with Barron and Norris and blame inadequate parenting for the culture of dependency and poverty within the youth.
• Parkin


  Social closure and usurpation strategies are used to block older people from some areas of social life, such as getting jobs.
• Functionalists such as Davis and Moore disagree with Parkin as older and younger people's exclusion is not because of social closure but rather a lower skill set.
• Hutton


  Britain is dividing in a 40/30/30 society. Bottom 30% are unemployed and disadvantaged which are mostly young or old people. Middle 30% are in structurally insecure forms of employment and are marginalised. 40% have secure jobs that are covered by trade unions and are privileged, mostly held by the middle aged.
• Postmodernists criticise Hutton for focusing solely on work to determine one's life chance. Older people's involvement in consumer culture shows they are less marginalised than suspected.