Article Analysis And Evaluation Of Middle Class

During the past couple of decades, the decline in the middle class has been associated to the political agenda of the Republican Party. By ending governmental subsidies and other programs created to build the middle class, has ultimately ceased the growth. However, realizing the importance of the middle class to our fragile economic platform, the Democratic and Independent political parties are desperately trying to create and revamp the middle class

In other words, America has a widening gap between its wealthy and poor. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is a problem emerging: the disappearance of the middle class. Low-wage workers continue to fall behind those who make higher wages, and this only widens the gap between the two. There has been an economic boom in the United States, which has made the country more prosperous than it has ever been. That prosperity does not reach all people; it seems to only favor the rich. Rising economic segregation has taken away many opportunities for the poor to rise in America today. The poor may find that the economic boom has increased their income; however, as their income increase so does the prices they must for their living expenses (Dreier, Mollenkopf, & Swanstrom 19).

In Edward McClelland’s essay “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013,” McClelland discusses to his audience that the middle class is slowly vanishing and soon enough we will only be left with the rich and the poor. Throughout the essay, McClelland uses various examples to demonstrate how the middle class will no longer exist. McClelland talks about how education is vital for pursuing a job at a reasonable pay that a person can live off of. Before, people were able to leave high school and go straight into a job with a pay that could support them. Nowadays, the same jobs that were supporting people before require a lot more education and still aren’t giving enough money that will allow them to live comfortably. Even though there are still jobs people can thrive at that will make more money without a serious education , the middle class is struggling to make it economically, because it is harder to find a job without education and financially it’s harder to make ends meet.

Publisher, Richard V. Reeves, in his online article, "The Dangerous Separation of the American Upper Middle Class," shares how income, education, and political power have caused a split in the upper middle class. Reeves's purpose is to convey the idea that the upper middle class has shifted from being a sociological curiosity to an economic and political problem. Reeves outlines how the upper middle class that was once considered an accessible hope or American dream, is now a blockade and an obstacle for others. He adopts a rational and analytical tone to appeal to the reader's sense of reason. Reeves cites convincing facts and statistics as well as successfully uses emotional appeals. However, toward the end of the article his attempts to appeal to reader's emotions, weakens the credibility and ultimately his argument.

In “Economic Elites, Investments, and Income Inequality” from the academic journal, Social Forces, graduate Ph. D student from Ohio State University, Michael Nau presents throughout his study the rise of an additional factor that has evidently influenced the concentration of vast amounts of income among the elite class, income from investments. In this era, the common belief is that demographics, labor market institutions, and technology are causing the inequality to rise and for the elites to produce astounding amounts of income. Nau’s findings present how the debate over the incomes of the elites has to be expanded apart from the ‘working rich class’ to also include the income producing wealth. In addition, Nau presents how the

In 1978, the economy started suffering in the US, because the middle class was getting weaker, and inequality started increasing. According to Reich, the middle class is directly associated with the economy, because 70 percent of the economy is summoned up of consumer spending. The middle class is the foundation of consumer spending. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, wages

This fact remains accurate after government attempts at wealth redistribution such as taxes. This shows that the government is not successful at helping to redistribute wealth and the dramatic increases in wealth of the rich while the poor barely improve show the inefficacy of the “trickle-down economy” model. To figure out why the 10% is gaining wealth so quickly, the people that make up this small group must be analyzed. The top 10% is essentially comprised of three main groups: superstars, CEOs, and high-income professionals. However, the incomes of superstars and CEOs are increasing more rapidly than those of the high-income professionals (Belsie). While the incomes of high-income professionals and superstars are market driven, they do not benefit from the same rate that CEOs do.

Increasing funds from pension programs for workers and other large trust holdings allows large institutional investors to have more control over stock in major corporations. The inner group of the corporate class is considered to be more elite and they have more corporate contacts. Competing models of “welfare capitalism,” or different types of capitalist systems show different relations between the government, capitalist, or corporate class, and middle or working class.

The middle class is like the engine to The United States economy. In order to rebuild the middle class, the American people will have to focus on the job crisis. Set the agenda to create good jobs. You cannot rebuild the middle class without putting America back to work. Too many Americans cannot find work at all; too many workers are toiling in jobs that don’t pay enough to support families. Meanwhile, the jobs that will grow the most in the next decade are expected to be low-wage and stripped of benefits.

Despite the continuation of capitalism, the middle class successfully emerged as the dominating class in our society. As Lewis Corey states, “Workers were becoming capitalists, the capitalists becoming workers.” Industrial capitalism spawned a middle class, molded the exact same way that Marx predicted in his major work.

According to McClelland the middle class is starting to look like a “fluke” while the upper class keeps advancing, economically, and he supports his argument by starting off his article with a personal anecdote which coincides with the statistics he has provided showing the change since those times.

(27) There is a demarcation between the classes beginning with the rich elite, the upper upper class and the lower upper class. Those with inherited wealth are placed above those with self-earned wealth while those with great wealth are distinguished from those with a moderate amount of wealth. They are stable within their ranks, not dependent upon the economic climate of the country to sustain their positions. The upper middle class belongs to those people who are doing well and whose position also is not likely to change with the economic climate of the country. The middle class is comprised of people who are relatively comfortable and can afford a minimal number of luxuries. The working class can afford very few luxuries and are just getting by. Their position, like the middle class is subject to change with socio-economic changes in the country. The working poor cannot actually make ends meet and often become displaced workers with the ability to plummet down into the lowest class. They are not usually able to access the minimal comforts of the working class. The Underclass is a desperate position whose ranks lead substandard lives with no amenities and little chance for mobility.

Over the past few decades, the “American Dream” vision has been quickly vanishing as a result of the increasing troubles and weakening of the middle class. It has lost the view of being the most successful and wealthy middle class in the world, while the middle classes in other countries are excelling in earning higher middle and lower class incomes. The issue of the declining wealth of the middle class explains a huge problem in the United States’ future prosperity and well being for the citizens and the country. There are many issues that affect the success of the middle and lower classes, such as structural differences in the economy, culture, and government. The gap between the middle and high classes is increasing specifically. The United States has the image of giving people life and prosperity, but inequality is increasing significantly due to issues in education, decrease in taxation among the upper class, and decrease of middle class power in the democracy, while other ideas and mechanisms can be take from other nations.

In life, there are many ways in which people are classified and put into different groups or levels. In school, students are classified by their chosen pathway through courses that are divided into Apprenticeship, College, University or AP levels. In George Orwell’s novel, 1984, the citizens of Oceania are divided into either the Proletarians, the Outer Party and the Inner Party based on the importance of their job in relation to Big Brother. A similar example of a classification system would be the social class system that exists today. Like the novel 1984, modern society has a class system that divides people into the lower class, middle class, and first class. In simpler terms, these classes indicate the poor, the financially stable and the rich people within a society. In Nancy Birdsall’s article, “Middle class heroes: the best guarantee of good governance”, Nancy analyzes the growth of the middle class and its relationship to the success and stability of modern societies around the world. Class systems may seem like just labels but, with the right components, they can create the structure to a better government, economy and overall life. However, by analyzing the size of the social classes in 1984, the lack of desire for change, and the control of the government, it is evident that the class system in 1984 prevents the citizens from escaping the totalitarian rule of the government of Oceania.

According to Marx and Engels, history has always been heavily influenced by the presence of various social ranking systems. Just as rankings appeared in ancient societies (such as lords and serfs), they appear in modern society as well. Marx felt that the working classes of his time were being exploited, because even though they were doing all the work, they only received a mere fraction of the profits being made by those at the top. Upon examining the modern economy, many parallels can be seen among these ancient societies to the world we live in today. At the top of modern corporations are the CEOs who rake in the profits generated by the work of their underlings, the working class. Although those at the bottom do most of the work, those