From my past experience of visiting Jamaica, I knew that most people there weren't very well off relative to the US.  While doing some research on my topic, I discovered some interesting statistics about Jamaican society and control of wealth.

I discovered that Jamaica is ranked #34 in the Human Poverty Index Rankings.  Compared to the United States, much of Europe and Japan that aren't even ranked.  Some organizations measure poverty as strictly a financial state, while others include factors such as poor drinking water, life expectancy, literacy rate, and underweight children.  Depending on how you measure poverty, about 15-20% of Jamaicans live in poverty.  

As far as social classes and the control of wealth goes, there is almost no middle class.  In Jamaica, either you have it, or you don't.  The highest %20 of Jamaicans with income control 44% of the wealth.  While the lowest 20% controls 7% of the wealth.  This is a huge spread.  This is also exactly what I saw when I was there.  Kingston, Jamaica is located in a bowl.  Around the rim of the bowl is where the wealthy live, with their houses perched above the city.  The lower class live in the middle of the bowl, as if trapped in their social status.

This provides some interesting insight as to why Jamaican society is so different from ours.