Kelly (2014) explained that part of the goal of social psychology is “to understand the social factors that influence how individuals think, how they act, and how they feel.” How does stratification affect individuals living in social class systems, caste systems, or slavery? According to Baumeister and Bushman (2014): At the time when social mobility began to increase, so much so that some aristocrats became poor while merchants became rich, the upper classes wanted to continue to believe that they were intrinsically better than others, even if others had moreover. money. The upper class could not point to obvious differences in behavior because in reality many aristocrats were drunk, conceited, stupid, lazy, sexually immoral, and in other ways deplorable (p. 75). Western civilization has worked, according to Marshall (2010) “even if only for the West”. Marshall explained that Western civilizations extended the practice of predation and exploitation to the rest of the world as the decades passed, through the united security network of the US-led NATO Empire. It was necessary to find new earning opportunities, earn more money, possess more resources and more power was needed. Western civilizations are running out of these resources and this is causing the disappearance of the middle class. When resources stopped being available, those living in the middle class began to live on credit. According to Marshall (2010), there is approximately $1.5 trillion in credit card debt, predominantly incurred by 115 million Americans who have monthly credit card debt. As the cost of expensive assets such as vehicles, homes, medical insurance, and college education has risen rapidly; income for the middle class has n... half of paper... would get maximum use of it. Overall, it appears that social stratification is fluid and ever-changing. What will be the long-term implications of evolving social structures? According to Chin, “Money is more than just currency: it shapes our evolution, or lack thereof.” I think this is a powerful sentiment about layering. As economies around the world worsen, the need for cheap labor fuels the system of slavery. Will human trafficking continue to grow to meet this need? Although the social structure of Western culture appears to be decentralizing, caste systems in other cultures are evolving. As the gap between the upper and lower classes widens because the middle class falls further and further into debt and ultimately into the lower class category. Caste systems are slowly transforming into more open societies, and many people are embracing these changes.