Middle Class Family

Contrary to the upper class, the middle class retains an opportunity for growth and therefore believes in the American Dream. However, their dreams shy away from the common view of the American Dream and instead revolve around their values and wants. Primarily, the middle class is defined as having an income between $46,960 and $140,900, although the economic boundaries that make up the middle class constantly varies (Luhby). Besides income, the middle class also can be identified by occupation, net worth, or education, but every middle class citizen, no matter how they are identified, experience similar circumstances (Elkins). The majority of the middle class yearn to have a nice home and secure job, along with extra money to enjoy their interests and hobbies. In addition, they strive to set aside savings for their children’s transition into the working world or future education. Although the middle class has more opportunities than lower class citizens, they still encounter their own struggles. For many middle class families, hard times come and go while they try to maintain a comfortable living situation. Money for them does not come as easily as it does for the upper class, who typically have enough to constantly feel stable. Nonetheless, the middle class obtains enough to live more

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.

In a research of Harvard professor 5000 people in America have opinion in how they think about the actual distribution of wealth in the U.S. and the 92 percent choose the ideal would be 20 percent and 20 percent the middle class. However, the reality is very far from it. “The poorest are not even registered, they are on the package change and the middle class is barely distinguished from the poor, even the rich between the 10 % and 20 % are worst off, only the top 10 % are better off. Only the one percent gets ten time higher and 40 % all the nation wealth. The bottom 80 % 8 out 10 people only has 7 % between them.1 % makes a quarter of the national income today”(you tube, 2015). All of this data reflex one of the truly perspectives in economy of the U.S. Not only people with low wages are the most affected, but also those who have good jobs and

Nowadays, the middle class is shrinking, while majority of people are either moving into the lower or upper classes. This is due to the major economic and policy changes that have occurred throughout the past thirty years. Based on the Basic Economy Security Tables, one in four full-time working-age adults are not earning enough income to meet economic needs for themselves or their families. This is a serious problem in America today, the fact that the median income today is six hundred dollars less than it was in 1989 is proof of this epidemic. It is much harder now, than ever, to work your way into the middle class, much less stay there. The percentage income growth since 1967 for the top 5 percent of earners is 88%, top 20 percent of earners grew 70%, and middle-income households only grew 20%. (Camp) In simpler terms, the upper classes income has increased tremendously, while middle-income households have seen very little growth in their income. Since the middle class is not receiving any income growth, it is declining and moving towards the lower class. It is not nearly as easy as it was thirty years ago to get a decent job and make

This book is great for clients because it provides the fundamentals of the economic classes in America. Leondar-Wright starts off by defining who falls into which class and the unequal distribution in our country. She states, “two-thirds of Americans are working-class, low-income, or low-middle-class” which is an unsettling fact (Leondar-Wright, p. 2). Although most people believe that many Americans identify themselves as “middle-class,” Leondar-Wright reveals that this is false and that working-class is a more appropriate term. Working-class, as Leondar-Wright defines it, is someone who has little education, one non-luxury house, and has a job consisting of physical labor (p. 1). As you can see this applies to many more people than originally thought.

The American dream is all but a figment of the imagination that is unrealistic to attain since it is becoming harder and harder for any middle class to sustain itself in the middle or the poor society to prosper to the intermediate class. What once was possible is almost impossible to achieve success and wealth through hard work, persistence, and action. The top one percent of the American society is making it impossible for the lower class to hold on to hope for a better future. The richer are getting richer by remarkably increase profits. Yet, the lower class wages have either decrease in some sectors of employment or have remained stationary resulting in “income inequality. That is “…the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population” (inequality.org). Today it is even more evident that the lower class is stuck, unable to go nowhere. Savings is almost none existence to the middle and poor classes yet, they are working harder than ever before. Fortunately by having a free democratic society take control over “wealth inequality” the economic difference can stabilize through unionization for all low-wage labor.

The article I found describes the issue that the middle class in America is no longer the world’s richest, and compares this issue with other advanced countries. It states that in recent years, middle class families in America were receiving meager raised income than counterparts were around the world, and most of American families were receiving unequally income. Those income data were analyzed by LIS, a group that maintains the Luxembourg Income Study Databases, and by The Upshot, a New York Times website covering policy and politics, and also reviewed by outside-academic economists. The United States used to be a leader of after-tax middle-class income country among all the developed states, but now the other countries,

In the video, Wealth Inequality in America, there were many things that caught my attention the second time around that i had not understood the first time listening to it. When they had surveyed 5,000 people I was not surprised to see that the ideal for most Americans would be a somewhat even distribution of wealth among the various groups. What I was most shocked about was what most American think about the distribution of wealth is not even close to what the reality has to hold. The fact that lowest 20 - 30 percent don't even register as sharing in the wealth of America as they are behind the poverty line. They are living of “pocket change”. The top 1 percent didn't even shock me as much as how the middle class did.

So, in Warren’s The Vanishing Middle Class, her question initially was, “What is the middle class?” Which laid out her platform for her main stance: to expose the true issues of the middle class and why they’re suffering. For example, she counters the idea that they’re spending too much money on consumer goods by observing that “fixed” and necessary goods are up while their wages aren’t keeping a pace. With that being said, she makes a suitable point that the cost of living in America for the middle class is rising at a higher rate than the families can handle. In recent studies, like the ones she’s cited using figures and diagrams, have shed light among the profound changes within the incomes of these middle-class families and how they’ve been kept in the shadows. For instance, she addresses the issue of savings and debt in our nation, by providing statistical information based on families over a thirty-year time period to show the dramatic change generation after generation. Warren also emphasizes that people are quick to blame middle-class’ short comings in wages on overconsumption (especially those of luxurious goods), however the facts, stats and graphs don’t match up with that, but that of fixed costs, the things you can’t avoid (housing and childcare) have gone up so the middle-class can’t be to blame for that. Finally, she discusses the impact taxes had on two-income families by emphasizing the ups and downs of family’s incomes over the past generation. Ultimately, what is at stake here is, if the majority of the middle class doesn’t get some form of recognition and attention needed soon, they’re going to be whipped off the spectrum of today’s society.

Although most people in the United States of America do not live in an upper-class household, this term is often correlated with income, wealth, power, and prestige. In fact, “approximately one percent of the U.S. population is considered to fall in this stratum” (2017 p.260). Nevertheless, the middle class are the rulers of the United States of America. Per Conley, the middle class is “a term commonly used to describe those individuals with nonmanual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line – though this is a highly debated and expansive category, particularly in the United States of America, where broad swathes of the population consider themselves middle class” (2017 p.262). In particular, the middle class is often correlated with white-collar workers, such as accountants, teachers, and attorneys. An abundant number of families in the United States of America are considered to be “poor.” In accordance with Conley, “in 2015, the poverty line for a family of four was $24,250” (2017

In the documentary "My Reality: A Hidden America," produced by ABC News, reporter Diane Sawyer interviews hard-working, middle-class American families struggling to make ends meet while also examining the growing gap between the low wage workers and the upper-class. The documentary follows the lives of different individuals from firefighters, contract workers, teacher assistants, fast food workers, and even Biotechnology workers. The film gives the viewers a glimpse of the hardships that these low wage middle-class Americans go through on a daily basis. Some of these hardships include traveling eighty miles to and from work each day to having to donate blood plasma just to make a few extra bucks for a child's birthday present. On average, middle-class Americans, which make up roughly seventy-five percent of the population, are making only $54,000 a year.

This “middle-class nation” is struggling to support all those who live in its borders and the misconceptions about wealth are vastly overrated. Furthermore, the idea of wealth and stability is incorrect, and there is a very sharp contrast between the rich and poor in the country. As the richest twenty percent of American hold ninety percent of the total household of the total household wealth in the country, those at the bottom have managed very poorly and suffer to get through the days.

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.

The American family is shaped by the economic stratification of society and the opportunities afforded to each social class. Lareau and Cherlin discussed that the typical family encounters economic inequality that overtly affects individuals within households. Lareau has successfully conducted research and illustrated that different experiences vary among the middle class and lower class families by observing the daily life of children. The economy of the United States provides privilege for middle class families and constrains resources for those in the working-lower class.

I could best describe my family being from a lower-working-class socioeconomic status during my childhood years. I base my answer on the fact that my father came to the United States as a migrant-worker when he was only 12 years old, never finishing up middle school. After years of coming back and forth from Mexico to the U.S. my father finally establish himself and meet my mother who only finished middle school. The biggest stress my family experience during my childhood was after the fact that my parents separated and my father gain full custody of me and my two siblings. Since he didn't have any family in the U.S. he was forced to take us (his children) to Mexico to be under the care of our grandparents while he stayed in the U.S. working