Essay on Working Class and Money

Around this time (1889) big money was being made. There were a select few who made crazy fortunes on their own, in oil and steel, guys like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegies dream was to have his own steel company that would create the steel from the beginning to the end. When his dreams came true he made a fortune. He was very generous in the way of philanthropy,

Andrew Carnegie was one of the wealthiest men in America but his wealth didn’t come without hard work and dedication. Carnegie was born in “Dunfermline, Scotland on November 25, 1835” (Tyle). According to Laura B. Tyle, the invention of the weaving machine unfortunately pushed Carnegie’s family in to poverty “In 1848, Carnegie’s family left Scotland and moved to Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, where his father and eventually him worked in a cotton factory” (Tyle). After leaving the cotton factory “Carnegie became a messenger boy for the Pittsburgh telegraph office and eventually made his way up to telegraph operator” (Tyle). According to Laura B. Tyle “Thomas A. Scott, the superintendent of the western division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, made Carnegie his secretary at the age of eighteen.” Later, Carnegie took over Scott’s position of the railroad. Furthermore Carnegie “began to see that steel was going to replace iron and by 1873 he organized a steel rail company” (Tyle). According to Laura B. Tyle he continued to build his company when he “cut prices, drove out competitors,

Murray, Harry. "Deniable Degradation: The Finger-Imaging Of Welfare Recipients." Sociological Forum 15.1 (2000): 39. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 May 2013.

In the book Money and Class in America written by Lewis Lapham, the way Americans look at money is exposed. It compares other nations view on monetary value against that of the Americans. It is a fact that we place more value on money than anything else. This book illustrates the corruptness of the “American Dream” as it focuses money as the “currency of the soul” and through the dream, men remain free to rise or fall. Their life is the product of the effort and the decisions put forth by them.

     Let us first look at Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie was a mogul in the steel industry. Carnegie

Most people do not find their careers fulfilling or meaningful. Today more and more people are dissatisfied with this situation. Many people consider money to be more important than obtaining a purpose in life. Everyone has a passion deep down inside. You may not be aware of exactly what it is, but it will emerge as life goes on. Once you find this passion or mission, success will fallow. It is not easy to find or create work that truly satisfies the soul. Living your life purpose leads to joy and deep satisfaction. I see life purpose as a contribution to the world that gives your life passion, fulfillment, and meaning through dedication to something larger than yourself. The Love Your Job article says something

Carnegie not only got his start as a young Irish immigrant working as a railroad telegraph operator, his first major corporation was the Keystone Telegraph Company, in which he acquired the Pacific and Atlantic Telegraph Company. Carnegie thought of giving up on business after having moderate success, but on a trip to England in 1872, he met with Henry Bessemer and saw his plans for steel. (Carnegie

When we as human beings are born into this world, there are things that we have control over, and other things that we have no say in. We control what we do with our lives, what schools to attend, what activities to be a part of, and who we marry, for example. This seems to be quite fair, and for the most part, we take it for granted. While we do have these kinds of freedoms, there are other aspects of life that we have no control over. One thing that we are born into, is our social class. No matter who you are, there is a social class that you fall into, and you really have no say in it. The one social class that seems to be the most populated is the middle, or working class. These people usually classify

It’s difficult to imagine how some people hold multiple jobs to support themselves or their families and still struggle on day to day basis. The saying the rich get’s richer and poor gets poorer has never been so evident in today’s society. Let’s begin by explaining what poor is? According to (Encarta English Dictionary 2006) poor is explained as someone “lacking money, material possessions, unemployed and insecure”. Poor is also divided into two distinctive groups, the deserving and the undeserving poor (Levine & Rizvi, 2005, p.38). “The deserving poor are poor through no fault of their own but as a result of a disability, loss of employment, and economical change”. “The undeserving poor are poor because of their own interpersonal skills,

With the fast development, affluenza is regarded as an outcome, which is not good but inevitable. At the beginning, people cooperate and compete with each other to reach the basic needs. Until now, people start to pursue not only material stuff, but also a better lifestyle with high quality. Gradually, the market of materialism develops so fast and mature. Meanwhile, people’s expectations are swollen and they become dissatisfied, which causes a new social phenomenon of affluenza. What is affluenza? John Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas Naylor, in their book Affluenza: How Overconsumption Is Killing Us - and How to Fight Back, defined the term as “A painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more” (1).the authors stated that affluenza as a powerful virus and it leads to a situation of over consumption which infected us a lot. In accordance with this common disease, the book described the symptoms, analyzed the causes, and raised the treatment. In the part one of the book, authors have discussed deeply to show that we have already got stuck into affluenza. In addition,

Life for the middle class during the Middle Ages was noticeably easier than the peasants, but still not as glorious as the nobles. As the increase of cottage and textile industries became more apparent and important, there was an increase for jobs as merchants. These merchants eventually became capitalist and continued to increase investments along with profits. The common peasants would become more urban, moving in towards the cities and towns, instead of to the rural areas, and became wage workers. As middle class merchants became more prominent, there was an increase in competition for jobs that left many people unemployed and companies underemployed. The middle class was becoming a more diverse group of people, from wage workers to entrepreneurs, all experimenting with new opportunities to increase socially and economically in status.

According to the Class Action, a non-profit organization that advocates on social issues surrounding class, class is defined as “a relative social rank in terms of income, wealth, education, status, position, and/or power”. Class can further be defined by asking questions such as “how much a person earns/ owns”, “who a person knows/ associates with”, and “how much a person knows” (Class Action). Moreover, socioeconomic class is a subset of class that is marked by the amount of income a person attains, and how much wealth a person retains.

Working Class: This group generally give more importance to personal relationships and because of their social network they visit shops along with friends. They tend to shop at the same stores most of the time because of their loyalty and comfort level they enjoy at these stores. Also they have a feeling that they won’t be treated well if they shop at high-status department stores. This group use information of products from sales people, display board or from stores pamphlets. Marketers should realize and understand this routine shopping behavior of this class and should display banners, discount charts and pamphlets at easy to see place in their shops. This group is found of clearance and discount sales. The working classes don’t allow

If it is suggested that class has anything to do with how people live their lives or treat each other in America people adamantly refuse to believe it. The thought that here, in this country built by revolutionaries and self-made men, people cannot be whatever they want with hard work and perseverance is intolerable. The truth is social class does exist and does influence how people see and treat each other. These revelations are not unique to one person, in fact, several people have touched on these points including, Paul Fussell the son of a millionaire who, based on his observations, wrote a piece explaining class distinctions and some of

I found this video, and the results from the studies performed, very interesting and educational. The video showed an clear link between social class and behavior.