The Reason Behind Socio-Economic Classes

Did human nature drive “civilizations” to create socio-economic classes? 

There is evidence that the division of socio-economic classes existed in the earliest civilizations.  Traces of social boundaries have been found in the architecture in the Mohenjo-Daro civilization (present-day Pakistan) around 2000 BCE.  There, the "city" was divided into sectors.  Many archaeologists believe that the sectors represented different social classes.  One sector was the administrative class, and another was the industrial class.  The industrial sector housed the “lower-class” individuals.

This early separation of societal groups led me to the conclusion that something about human nature drives societies to create socio-economic boundaries.  I attribute this to humans' natural ethnocentric attitudes.  Though many people today say they believe in an equal society where everyone is treated the same, in reality, this has rarely if ever existed.  I believe that even the most righteous people look as some others condescendingly.  Everyone thinks they are better in some way or deserve more respect than others.  There may be selfless people, but no one is completely selfless.  

I think the reason humans created socio-economic classes was because there were jobs that no one wanted to do but needed to be done.  Not everyone could have their dream-job because someone needed to build the homes for the wealthier to live in, to farm the food for them to eat, and to clean the expensive property that the powerful owned.  When it came time to do jobs demanding hard labor, the individuals who took those jobs were often those who had little choice; those who were a lower class of citizen.   

In modern day societies, these individuals are usually paid less even though they work more. This is just how societies run.  This reinforces their socio-economic status.  These individuals are looked at condescendingly by the rich and the powerful.

Over the course of history the problem with this system has been that the children of the poor usually don't have much of a chance to rise in the ranks of their civilizations.  Once a family starts working in one kind of occupation, it has less money and less powerful contacts, and future generations are more likely to follow in their footsteps.  Only recently have people discovered that by giving everyone in society a strong education, individuals can break out of their socio-economic class and become whomever they wish.  

It was inevitable that humans created socio-economic classes because of our fundamental nature.  However, the thing that I would argue that can be changed about this natural tendency to create classes is the respect given to everyone despite where they work in a civilization.   Even though individuals may be doing different jobs for their civilizations, everyone is contributing positively to the prosperity of the society.  Everyone deserves to be treated with equal respect.