The Social Hierarchy

The given diagram shows the Social hierachy. The Tier "I" refers to the Mass which goes on narrowing to become refined Class in the Tier "IV".

The people in tier "I" has to make "a" efforts to sustain themselves in that tier. Whereas to move to the "II" tier they will have to make "a+b" effort and then they can sustain themselves in that tier by just the "b" effort. Similarly, to move from tier "II" to "III" the efforts will be "b+c" and "c" effort will be required for the sustainance. And to move from "III" tier to the "IV" the efforts will be "c+d" and the "d" efforts will be required the sustainance.

If a person in tier "I" wants to move to the tier "IV" they will have to make "a+b+c+d"efforts but will require only "d" efforts to sustain themselves in that tier.

Here "effort" should be understood as the combination of personal efforts, expenditure and luck.

Tier "I" refers to the Lower class, the poors. Thir volume is highest.

Tier "II" refers to the Lower Middle class, having little better life.

Tier "III" refers to the Middle class.

Tier "IV" refers to the uppermost class, the rich ones. Their volume is very low.

The structure of each tier is like a trap, and there is very less "space"/opportunity to get out of it.

Most of the people in the Tier “I” believe in day to day living. But as these Tier move upwards, the habit of planning and preparing for the future is common.


The people of tier “IV” believe in ‘High Earning and High Spending’. They are fast learners, highly intelligent and opportunist.

The efforts of Fore-fathers, Social biology, and attitude of the person have an important role in defining the tiers.

A person can choose the upper tier by both ethical and unethical means.
Most people apply combination of the two means to be in the narrower tier. Here the goal is more important than the means.
The ethical means are difficult and slow process and requires good amount of perseverance, confidence and optimism. Once attained, it is more sustainable. Here the value system in the family is strong and good prudence and efforts are made in the breeding and rearing of the next generation.
Examples: Disciplined and Diversified Investment, High Profile Government Job, Enhancing the wealth created by the
The unethical means or crook-hook method can raise you in short term but can be dangerous.
Examples: Misuse of position for selfish gains, Scams
Manifold margin on their product and services, especially when they have command over the situation.
Trying to get credit out of the others efforts, Plagiarism,
Land grabbing, Emotional blackmails, etc
Each of the Tiers is more or less independent in themselves. We can see that the products and services in society are different for the different tiers. Even in cities, a makeshift barber shop will be available to serve the general people. At the same time an exclusive Air conditioned Hair Dresser shop will also be available to serve the effluents. Similarly the hotels, restaurants, rented houses, vehicles, accommodation in railway etc. are different for the Mass and the Class.
The Salary/Wage/‘other facilities from the employer’ are differently designed for the different Tiers.
Their can be much debate on the rationale behind the designs, but the generally followed norm is “Pay as much little, so that the employee/worker is able to just sustain themselves in their respective tiers, but never as much high, so that they are able to transfer to the next upper tier”.
One rationale is that the Development and Maintenance of Soft skills are very costly than that of the Physical work skills and so there is difference in the Payments.
Note: The Motivation of writing this article came from a class in Human Resource Management course on "Low Level Equilibrium Trap", taken by our Human Resource Professor, Shri Anand Das Gupta, in Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore (Year 2007-08).