Is the working class becoming the new middle class? Contrary to popular opinion, most American households actually fall into the working class category. To be considered middle class your household must have an annual income in between $65,000 and $100,00. Slowly more and more Americans are falling below this line. Why? Although the unemployment rate has consistently been on the decline since Obama was elected into office, The GDP has also been on the decline. This is usually a sign of an economy in recession, but this is not the case in America. What’s actually happening is the average annual income is decreasing. Annual income has decreased 8 percent from 2007 to 2013, according to the U.S census bureau .This is giving companies incentive …show more content…
There is a serious lack of skilled manual labor in America, and this is in part due to the high demand of white collar jobs and low demand for blue collar jobs. This imbalance has again been caused be inelasticity. Contactors have been raking in the profits, but the laborers not so much. They usually fall in the working class, or no class at all. What I mean by this is their illegal. Because they’re illegal, they probably don’t have training for these jobs, thus lowering the quality of labor services. A few of the more collar fields that have been relatively elastic are the plumbing and trucking industry, but most others are behind the curve. The reason plumbing and trucking are fairly elastic is that licensing is required, so what I propose is a system in which licensing is required for carpenters, auto repairmen and so on. This would increase quality, and decrease the amount of illegal laborers. Programs that allow illegals to gain citizenship by filling jobs that are less desirable should also be implemented. Kicking them out is not the solution. Allowing them in actually helps the economies productivity and efficiency. The more available employees you have the higher the country's ppf will be. Of course there needs to be some caution as too many immigrant at one time will cause an imbalance in the economy and generally lower wages which in small doses is not a bad
Diversity is part of the American lifestyle. America is a country built on capitalistic principles, where a countries’ economy is controlled by a small number of people. People who tend to have power in the society tend to separate themselves from the rest. Looking back at different time period of American history diversity has shaped up the lives we live as Americans, whether it is because of gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, socioeconomic background, and capabilities/ disabilities, there is always diversity in society. Although, diversity is increasingly being viewed positively, and as much as people are proud of their differences. There will always be a way for human beings to diversify themselves into groups in which share similar interests.
Being in America, a society encompassed by those of a wealthy nature versus those striving to obtain as much wealth as they can in their own limitations, it seems inevitable for one to pass judgment on those who choose the glamorous lifestyle over any morals they may have had prior to their riches. After reading Money and Class in America, it can be concluded that Mr. Lewis Lapham makes an intriguing point as he states that it is seemingly unintelligent to assume that one that is wealthy in pocket is also wealthy in intelligence. Everyday, greed filled Americans prove this judgment to be blatantly wrong, as they partake in the extravagant lifestyle without much thought in the immorality that comes with the lifestyle. Though some may say that
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...
The largest group in America is facing extinction. We are talking of course about the American middle class. In 1971 the American middle class population was 36% higher than the population of the lower class. However, today the middle class population is now only 22% higher than the lower class (McDill). This is only a 14% drop spread over 44 years. The major issue here is that while the middle class shrinks, the upper and lower classes are growing. Financial experts believe that soon the middle class will become nonexistent and America will be divided into two extremes, poverty and wealth. This issue has become so severe that the United States government has stepped in and created a “middle class task force” passed as part of the government “stimulus package” of 2009. However most experts including Kent McDill of the millionaires’ corner, Doyle McManus of the LA Times, Erik Kain of Forbes magazine believe that the government’s program is putting a knife in the middle class. They believe this because the government is taxing businesses until they are forced to leave America and go overseas. This, along with the rise of mechanical workers and ignorance of the issues facing the middle class led to the decreasing job market. Jobs in America will soon be split into either very high paying upper class jobs or very low paying jobs. This makes the job market a hit or miss in America. It is predicted that America will soon be either very rich or very poor with no middle ground.
The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) serves as a gatekeeper for the United States’s borders by determining who may enter, how long they may stay and when they must leave. They provide an annual worldwide limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants, with certain exceptions for close family member (AIC 2016). However, when we take a look at the total number of illegal aliens and immigrants the numbers are far more impacting and put the american workforce in danger for its natural born citizens. The number of illegal immigrants in the United States totaled 11.3 million in 2014, outnumbering the 9.6 million Americans who were unemployed in the same year, according to da from Pew Research Center and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Unauthorized immigrants make up 5.1% of the workforce. This is a problem. We have people that are coming into our nation that was built and united by our founding fathers for other individuals in other nations to flee over into the US and steal jobs right underneath our own citizens feet. In addition, many americans simply cannot compete with illegal workforces in the country who are willing to work for low wages. “American workers deserve decent jobs with decent wages, not unfair competition from imported foreign workers who are exploited to the
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.
Becoming an adult is signified differently in every culture, in America, reaching middle class status is one way that is used to indicate adulthood. To obtain middle class status one would need to acquire a job, become financially stable, get a house, and have a family. The “Mood Economy”, self-reliance, and distrust in institutions, as stated in Silva’s Coming Up Short, have reshaped what it means to become an adult. Replacing the traditional white picket fence ideals with new neoliberal ones. Although middle class status is still a goal for a lot of individuals, the number of people who reach middle class status has diminished significantly over the years. By examining the new milestones that mark adulthood and evaluating how the state reproduces little social mobility through “Attacking Solidarity” mentioned in Requiem for the American Dream, we can get a better idea of how the middle class disappeared before us.
However, in recent years, the share of income possessed by the middle class has fallen to a historically low level. Fairchild states, "The middle 60 percent of households earned 53.2 percent of national income in 1968. That number has fallen to just 45.7 percent (¶2)." Interestingly enough, another figure that fell at the same rate was union membership. Because of laws limiting Union power, membership had fallen to an all time low in recent years with 11.3 percent. There are many reasons that these two might correlate. First, unions insured access to a livable minimum wage. This increased income along with health benefits and pension plans makes for a vibrant middle class (Fairchild ¶1-3). Not only do the members of unions benefit, but the presence of unions also raises pay for non-union workers in the same industries. Unions not only raise the floor on wages, but it also lowers the ceiling on the richest of our country. Because of union 's bargaining powers, the compensation of executives at those firms are moderated. It goes without saying, the middle class is at its strongest with unions. If unions continue to lose members and if unions continue to lose their bargaining power, the economic inequality will continue to
...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)
America’s upper class has been getting richer since the past three decades, and we have still not found a way to stop this. We have been unable to find a way to distribute America’s wealth equally, so we can have a decent lower class and a good middle class. Inequality has caused many people to struggle in various ways, but their is alway another side to the story.
The United States should pride itself for having one of the largest middle classes in the world. With this being said, it should be known that the middle class in the United States is shrinking. “While a majority of citizens in the middle and lower class feel the effects of debt in United States, there is no doubt the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer” (Peel 206). The
After watching the debate Income Inequality Impairs the American Dream, I have gained more knowledge in order to make an informative vote. At the beginning, I would have agreed that inequality of income does impact the American dream and upward mobility. I believed that it was harder for the poor to move forward in life or chase their dreams with having little to no resources. I also agreed that children of low income families have less resources and worse grades in school due to the circumstances and stress of their living situations. Based from the pro team's statistics, children of poor families tend to become poor adults and have a less chance of graduating from high school. It is also harder for them to continue their education with little money. The pro and con team of this debate also agreed with
...e the rich have increased. The fact that wages have dropped dramatically for the working class says that the rich are more important than the middle working class.
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
Use of illegal labor detrimentally affects the economy, job availability, and the wage gap. According to Michael Telzrow (2007) “The costs associated with uncontrolled immigration and flooding the U.S. job market with low-wage laborers far outweigh any savings to be had.” (p. 27) Americans without higher education are being pushed out by illegal immigrants willing to work the same jobs for lower pay. The economy is being affected by the prolific use of illegal immigrants in low paying jobs. In the 1980’s, the wage gap between low- and high-skilled workers increased between 15 to 25 percent due to the use of illegal immigrants. (Lind, 1998, p. 60) The idea that American workers will not do hard labor for low wages has become a false commonplace argument for the use of illegal