Stratification is a term used to describe structured social and systemic inequalities between groups of people that result in unintended consequences of social processes (Conley 240). Social stratification is used in societies to explain inequalities in resources and goods, which are unequally disrupted among members of society. Members of society are classified according to their status. In the United States, we use a class system, where people are organized into lower, middle, high, and upper classes. Individuals from the lower classes have limited access to society's resources, while the upper classes control most of the resources. Social stratification is functional in society. Ferguson and Millar's theory claimed that the motivation for this meant that their social mobility was horizontal because they were not moving vertically up or down the social ladder. Several factors influence this lack of mobility, such as government, family, education and the economy. Annette Lareau's work on parenting research is a good study to illustrate how the family environment leads to social reproduction. Lareau discovered through his research that children of working-class parents became working-class adults because unlike the middle class, they did not have "cultural capital." Cultural capital consists of the “symbolic and interactional resources that people use to their advantage in various situations” (Conley 521). This meant that children from middle-class parents were likely to question authority and feel able to interact at school. Government also contributes to social reproduction through its policies and practices. Educational practices perpetuate social reproduction. Students in low-income areas are given outdated textbooks and required to adhere to a strict timetable. On the other hand, students from wealthy neighborhoods have better access to new school materials and some even benefit from mediation. From personal experience, my first year at Luther Burbank HS, I was in “advanced classes”; however, when I went to Franklin HS in Elk Grove, the "advanced classes" were regular classes. Although I thought I was ahead of the students, I was actually average. The economy is another contributor to social reproduction. The economy, with the outsourcing of jobs to other countries and trade agreements, maintains the social level