When the average person thinks of a 'class system', the first things that spring to mind are the British system of nobles and commoners, and the Indian caste system. In both systems, it can be difficult to rise above the station that an individual is born to. Some societies have loosened the strict codes they once held to. One very good example is the recent marriage of future king of England, William, and his commoner bride, Kate Middleton. William is not held to the same strict standards as his own father was. William's mother, Diana, was not only a noble, but she was also required to be a virgin. In Ms. Middleton's case, more than one rule was relaxed. It will be quite interesting to see how the passing of the British throne will commence, after Queen Elizabeth II's reign ends. If they are bending the rules, in just one generation, perhaps Charles and Camilla's story will have a different ending, with two generations dividing them from his great uncle, who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson. Luckily, other than as an example of an aristocratic class system / tabloid fodder, it is not America’s immediate concern, right? But, the chance to escape an overbearing class / caste system was at the heart of the emigration to ‘The New World’. That, and the unfair tax system. Is history repeating itself?
Our current levels of unemployment, wage index between the small percentage of top earners, versus the majority of the population, make it harder to remember that America’s founding fathers -- in structuring a new culture -- made it possible for individuals, born of humble means, to achieve great wealth and power - in a way they never could have, in Europe. This is the country that once had the largest middle class in all of history; t...
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...l and Engels, Friedrich. The Communist Manifesto. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print.
Frank, Robert. Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. Ebook Library. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.
United States Department of Commerce. Middle Class in America. Washington DC. U. S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration. 2010. Web.
Zweig, Michael. The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret. Ithaca: ILR, 2000. Print.
Film / Lectures
“Bill Moyers Journal: America’s Growing Economic Divide.” Films On Demand. Films Media Group, 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.
Inequality for All. Dir. Jacob Kornbluth. Perf. Robert Reich. 2013. DVD.
"Weber's Theory of Class." 04-12-2011 Lecture, Department of Psychology and Social Science. Yale University, New Haven. 19 Feb. 2014. Lecture.
Going back to 1978, the typical male worker was making around 48,000 dollars per year while the average person in the wealthy group of the 1 percent earned 390,000 dollars per year. By 2010, the typical male worker earned less than in 1978 whereas the person in the top 1 percent earned more than twice as much as before. Today in America, 400 people have more wealth than half the population of the United States. Reich explains that a strong middle class is what gives our economy stability. This leads to the fact, that 70 percent of the economy is based on the consumer. If the middle class’ wages declin...
Growing up in The United States, people are given this idea of an American Dream. Almost every child is raised to believe they can become and do anything they want to do, if one works hard enough. However, a majority of people believe that there is a separation of class in American society. Gregory Mantsios author of “Class in America-2009” believes that Americans do not exchange thoughts about class division, although most of people are placed in their own set cluster of wealth. Also political officials are trying to get followers by trying to try to appeal to the bulk of the population, or the middle class, in order to get more supporters. An interesting myth that Mantsios makes in his essay is how Americans don’t have equal opportunities.
Edward McClelland focuses his essay RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013 on how the middle class is no longer able to thrive if the actions of the government continue – or their nonexistent
According to Gregory Mantsios many American people believed that the classes in the United States were irrelevant, that we equally reside(ed) in a middle class nation, that we were all getting richer, and that everyone has an opportunity to succeed in life. But what many believed, was far from the truth. In reality the middle class of the United States receives a very small amount of the nation's wealth, and sixty percent of America's population receives less than 6 percent of the nation's wealth, while the top 1 percent of the American population receives 34 percent of the total national wealth. In the article Class in America ( 2009), written by Gregory Mantsios informs us that there are some huge differences that exist between the classes of America, especially the wealthy and the poor. After
“A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality.” cbpp.org. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2013. Web. 06 April. 2014. .
Price, Mark. “The Increasingly Unequal States of America: Income Inequality by State, 1917 to 2011.” Economic Policy Institute. N.p., 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 30 Apr. 2014
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...
Income inequality in the United States, as of 2007, has reached levels not seen since 1928. In 1928, the top one percent received nearly 24% of all income within the United States (Volscho & Kelly, 2012). This percentage fell to nearly nine percent in 1975, but has risen to 23.5% as of 2007 (Volscho & Kelly, 2012). Meanwhile, in 2007 (see
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
Data generated by the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve and other nonpartisan sources oppose claims commonly made. For example, data from such agencies show that differences in family income largely reflect differences in how many members of a family actually work and how hard they work. Americans in all income groups have prospered, or have failed to prosper, together. Gains by upper-income Americans have not come at the expense of middle or lower-income Americans. Nor has anyone else gained in those periods when higher-income families have lost ground.
Divisions within the social stratum is a characteristic of societies in various cultures and has been present throughout history. During the middle ages, the medieval feudal system prevailed, characterized by kings and queens reigning over the peasantry. Similarly, in today’s society, corporate feudalism, otherwise known as Capitalism, consists of wealthy elites dominating over the working poor. Class divisions became most evident during America’s Gilded Age and Progressive era, a period in time in which the rich became richer via exploitation of the fruits of labor that the poor persistently toiled to earn. As a result, many Americans grew compelled to ask the question on everyone’s mind: what do the rich owe the poor? According to wealthy
Middle class Americans represent more than half of the United States’ population. They are the backbone of U.S. economics, and have been since the very beginning of the country’s history. However, an unstable job market, created by outsourcing, combined with a minimum wage which has not been raised since 1989, is gradually shrinking this economic group. To avoid the extinction of this critical class, the next president of the United States will have to go to extraordinary measures. Without major reformation, the middle class will continue to be absorbed by the lower class, ultimately resulting in the complete loss of one of America’s most important socio-economic bodies.
Desilver, Drew. “U.S. Income Inequality, On The Rise…” Pew Research Center. 5 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.
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
America is divided into two main groups, rich or poor. There is some grey area among these groups which is referred to as the middle class. The problem with the middle class is that most people think they belong in the middle class because they do not want to associate themselves with neither rich nor poor; there are stigmas attached to each side of the spectrum.