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Sociological imagination about poverty
Sociological imagination about poverty
Sociological imagination about poverty
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The essay “RIP the Middle Class: 1946-2013” was written by Edward McClelland. Edward McClelland is an American journalist. In this essay, McClelland is trying to prove a point that at some point there wouldn’t be the middle class and there would only be the rich and the poor, unless the government intervenes to balance out the economy. I consider my family and I to be in the middle class category and from being in the middle class, and the facts that are provided, the middle class is slowly declining as the time goes on. I believe that a lot of people go beyond the middle class to the upper middle class or people go below the middle class to the poor category. I’ve found a graph from Forbes that compares the rates of all classes from 1979 to 2014. From observing the graph my initial hypothesis was right. The middle class has declined by 6.8% between the years 1979-2014. In many people's eyes that doesn’t look that bad but if we were to look at the upper-middle class then we can notice a huge jump. The upper-middle class has increased by 16.5%, which is a drastic increase between the years 1979 to 2014. The poor class has decreased by 4.5%. The middle class would decline to the point where there would only be there rich …show more content…
Hernandez states “In recent years, a significant body of research and analysis has documented the breakdown of the middle class and the impact of the current financial crisis on family income, housing, and jobs.” The middle class has a huge impact on the income, housing, and the jobs. If the middle class completly decline, it would affect the housing market because there would only be the rich and the poor. The poor would not be able to afford the housing. Their income would be low and would cause a huge gap between the rich and poor. That is why we need to sustain the middle class because without the middle class there would be economic
3. What are the effects of this wealth inequality in the US and what causes it, as well as some possible solutions and their ramifications, will all be discussed and answered below. There has always been a wealth gap between the richest and poorest in society. However, in the past decade, the wealth gap between the richest and poorest citizens in the US has been growing rapidly. In the 70s and 80s, the wealth and income growth rate for both poor and rich people were similar, however, between the years 2009 and 2012 the top 1% income increased 31% while for the bottom 20%, their income actually dropped and for the vast majority of Americans, the average yearly income only increased by 0.4% [4].
With each class comes a certain level in financial standing, the lower class having the lowest income and the upper class having the highest income. According to Mantsios’ “Class in America” the wealthiest one percent of the American population hold thirty-four percent of the total national wealth and while this is going on nearly thirty-seven million Americans across the nation live in unrelenting poverty (Mantsios 284-6). There is a clear difference in the way that these two groups of people live, one is extreme poverty and the other extremely
In America, our society is categorized by the poor, working, middle, upper middle, or upper class. Majority of America today seems to be under the working to middle class. It's hard to tell what
In the United States there are four social classes : the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the lower class. Of these four classes the most inequality exists between the upper class and the lower class. This inequality can be seen in the incomes that the two classes earn. During the period 1979 through the present , the growth in income has disproportionately grown.The bottom sixty percent of the US population actually saw their real income decrease in 1990 dollars. The next 20% saw medium gains. The top twenty percent saw their income increase 18%. The wealthiest one percent saw their incomes rise drastically over 80%. As reported in the 1997 Center on Budget's analysis , the wealthiest one percent of Americans ( 2.6 million people) received as much after-tax income in 1994 as the bottom 35 percent of the population combined (88 million people). But in 1977 the bottom 35 percent had about twice as much after tax income as the top one percent. These statistics further show the disproportional income growth among the social classes. The gr...
Let's take it back to the past in regards to wealth distribution in this country. The fact is that the economy boomed from the end of WWII into the 1970's. “Incomes grew rapidly and at roughly the same rate up and down the income ladder, roughly doubling in inflation-adjusted terms between the late 1940s and early 1970s” (CBPP). Through the 70's economic growth slowed, and the wealth gap widened. Middle-class families were now considered lower class. People relied on the government to help them out with welfare programs. The middle-class class was weakened and the gap grew and grew. There were periods of positive fluctuation, however the middle-class simply never regained it's status that was held in more prosperous times in the past.
The ever-growing fear of the shrinking of Americas middle class has become incredibly relevant in our society because of the inevitable rising of an obvious gap between the middle class and the one percent which unfortunately will continue to grow at an alarming rate if action is not taken in some way. This makes the target audience towards a generation to fix this. This concept is covered proficiently in a variety of essays in the “They Say I Say” text by authors such as Leonhardt, McCllenhand, Krugmen and Becker and Murphy.
While the the 1%, are secured, no one is addressing the rest of the people. As the economy flourishes, housing, higher education and health care, and child care increases with it to the point where 30 percent of a person’s income goes towards housing. People are finding it impossible to purchase a house with their middle class incomes. People begin to fall out of the once stable middle class because too much is needed to be sacrificed in order to live in a stable home. In the shrinking middle class, “40% or more of the residents live below the poverty
...nd less likely to change. Ewen does suggest that the trends of the middle class are becoming increasingly ingrained in the values and mindset of the middle class because of World War II and the “yuppie culture of the 1980’s.” (196)
Published on the cover of the May 2016 issue of The Atlantic is an article titled “The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans,” in which one journalist writes about his own financial struggles, the embarrassment of what he calls “financial impotence,” the “social suicide” of struggling financially, and the inability of 47% of middle class Americans to easily obtain $400 in an emergency (Gabler 2016). Of course, as with any touchy subject, this article had both its’ supports and its’ critics. Scott Winship’s response on nationalreview.com titled “The Middle Class is Doing Okay: No Need for Gloom and Doom” (2016) attacks Gabler’s idea that the odds are stacked against the middle class. Winship cites Gabler’s personal financial choices as the main reason for his financial plight, contradicts most of the statistics presented in the The Atlantic article, and instead advocates the benefits of frugality; insisting the economy is not, in fact, working against the middle class.
He shows us that every privilege, and attitude that the middle class have, is a direct result, of the exploitation of the working class; and their deplorable
Think of a time when America was at its highest peak. Back when jobs were easily accessible and there was enough wealth to go around. Unfortunately, that time is not right now according to Edward McClelland. He believes that the middle class is dissipating and if we do not do something it is going to be a thing of the past. This all encompassed within his article that he wrote this entitled RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013. The article goes over the intricacies in which the middle class has diminished over the years. This article is speaking to people who follow up social issues and current events, more specifically people who remembered what the middle class used to be like. McClelland makes a persuasive argument throughout the article by
In my findings I have to agree with you as well, the richer are becoming richer and the poorer are becoming poorer. The middle class is disappearing so it seams but maybe there is some hope. "Income inequality has been rising since the early 1980's, and the median household is now lower than it was in 1999" (Cowen, 2016). But that also has a lot to do with China's manufacturing impact holding down American middle class wages. Yes, the cheaper imported items helped our pay checks stretch a bit further but they also robbed us of jobs or some suffered lower wages as a consequence. It's looking as though better times are ahead with wage hikes in China and other emerging nations therefore limiting their advantage putting it back in our
In the article “Six Policies to Help the Middle Class with No Cost to Taxpayers”, it was stated that the elected new officials should be in charge of strengthening the middle class. Since 1968, the value of minimum wage has declined by more than 31%. Rather than make excessive short term budget cuts, we need to make investments in the middle class, an example would be expanding access to preschool and child care. The cost of living in America is rising, while the incomes are staying the same or falling. With this being said, middle class is risking falling behind more and more economically. Our economic growth is shifting due to our middle class. The middle class is becoming more and more in danger, but there are ways to fix the issues. The first step would be to increase minimum wage, instead of having workers take on more hours just to survive on the pay they make. Also, providing and offering paid sick days to ALL United State workers. If sick days were offered, the benefits would include the reduction of work turnovers, and
The middle class has no specific definition with a number of experts defining it by income and others defining it by their lifestyle. If we were to say the middle class is characterized by income that amount would be between 46,960- 140,000 according to CNN. A survey reports that while 70 percent of Americans consider themselves middle class only about 50 percent are. While this sounds terrific the actuality is that the middle class has been shrinking with wages staying the same and the cost of living continues to rise. Those who personally identified with middle class, regardless of whether they fell into the income bracket considered the being of middle class as those living in comfort without financial stress. The middle class can be bolstered
the middle class was growing in size and influence, and the working poor were leaving their