Gregory Mantsios provides an integrated study on how race and gender relate to class, and in turn how class relates to well being. He moves on to discussing the myths that people have about the class system in America. These misconceptions consist of America being a classless society, health care and education opportunities being equal, and everyone getting richer.
In order to assess the myths, Mantsios provides statistical evidence about class differences. He then provides some realities about classes in order to combat the myths people have. These realities consist of the enormous gap in economic statuses that exists, the middle class holding a small share of the nation’s wealth, and the middle class shrinking in size, creating a bigger gap.
To demonstrate these realities, he provides profiles of “typical” and not-so-typical lifestyles in America, all of which differed in many aspects. After analyzing the socioeconomic statuses of each profile, he provides evidence explaining how people’s situations affect their status, health, and education.
Many people in the United States have a misconception that everyone has an
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equal opportunity to succeed. It’s ignorant to believe in this fallacy because those who struggle financially are empirically given substandard education, inadequate health care, and fewer opportunities. I can personally relate to this through experiences that I’ve had. Firstly, At Fort Osage, the equipment for live coverage in broadcasting is inferior to the equipment at Staley. When visiting the school to help out with live coverage, I had learned more about it than I ever would have at Fort Osage. I’m not blaming the school for having bad equipment, because I understand why they do, but I blame the economic system for distributing money to schools unequally. If my family were wealthier and could move to a community like that of Staley, I would have a better chance to get a good education. Furthermore, when I was little and diagnosed with asthma, my mother could not afford to get a good inhaler. We got the most basic type of inhaler that had bad side affects and didn’t work properly. A friend of mine also had asthma and had a more advanced type of inhaler. The thing that bothers me about that situation is that she could breathe better solely based on the fact that she had more money. Lastly, when my parents didn’t have enough money to pay rent, our landlord gave us a notice that we had to be out of the house in a month. We had no money to move anywhere else, and were thirty days away from being homeless. Luckily, my grandparents took us in and helped us financially by paying part of the rent in our next house. It was hard to get opportunities in the community when we were moving to a different town every year. To clarify, I don’t ask for sympathy from people, but for an aspiration to change.
I have always wanted a more socialistic society. People fear this society for a couple of reasons. One being that people want to keep wealth to themselves. People have this idea that all of those who struggle financially are lazy, and since they worked “hard” for that money they “deserve” all of it to be spent on things they don’t need. The author describes Harold Browning as a wealthy individual who inherited a lot of his wealth from his parents, and Cheryl Mitchell as a single mother that needs financial assistance from her mother. He states “Yet Harold Browning spends more money on his horses than Cheryl Mitchell earns in a year”(340). The fact that Harold’s horses have more money spent on them than Cheryl’s son just goes to show that there is a major class
divide. Another reason why people fear socialism is because people relate socialism to communism. While communism is the most perfect type of government/economy, people have accepted the fact that it doesn’t work. This, by no means, suggests that wealth should not be distributed. In fact, wealth needs to be distributed more so people can have an equal opportunity to pursue their happiness. In conclusion, it’s undeniable that there’s a definite class structure. Opportunities are nonexistent for those who are members of a lower class. This is a problem because we should all be treated as equals and have equal opportunities, instead of good opportunities mainly going to those who happened to be born in a fortunate situation. This article portrays the relationship between class standing and life difficulties. The author states “From cradle to grave, class standing has a significant impact on our chances for survival”(341). It’s upsetting to know that people have no value to them unless they have money to back their name up. For example, many social experiments have been conducted to show how people who aren’t dressed as nice aren’t treated as equally as people who wear business suits and look wealthier. Just because someone looks a certain part doesn’t mean they are that part. Moreover, I have had personal experiences with this type of discrimination based on stereotypes. Many people as me if I speak spanish, and people will also make jokes that I’m an “illegal.” I could use this reading to write an essay on how people judge others based on what they see. In the section labeled “American Life-Styles,”(335) it discusses how poverty is disguised by designer clothing and what looks to be a good life-style.
The book Class matter shows the importance of how much people should value and appreciate the importance of a classroom education. How much you dedicate yourself to school can help you gain enough knowledge to be successful in the future. Having good quality education in America seems to be the closest thing to a ticket to class mobility. The book was very interesting in explaining what social class really is in America, and the way it affects people's lives on how they live day to day. The different types of social class is what shapes our society. But I think this book is more for those people who aren’t that aware of social class, or for the ones who feel that we live in a society that is classless rather then the actually people who have realized the consequence that class really has on someone’s life. Many people can relate to what stories are told in the book if not, they know of a person that can relate to these stories. As a person that grew up in the lower class, I can definitely relate to most of the stories told in this book. From experience, there is a big difference in this country between the rich, middle class, and who are the poorest that we see daily. Even those in the so called working class have to make continuous sacrifices and live very differently from those positioned firmly in the middle class. Some people may have decent jobs but the bills and other expenses people may have make it harder on people than those who are in the same class but don’t have to necessarily go through the same thing as others. The chapters that I read in this book broaden what I said to a better more clear understanding.
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.
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
In his essay “Land of Opportunity” James W. Loewen details the ignorance that most American students have towards class structure. He bemoans the fact that most textbooks completely ignore the issue of class, and when it does it is usually only mentions middle class in order to make the point that America is a “middle class country. This is particularly grievous to Loewen because he believes, “Social class is probably the single most important variable in society. From womb to tomb, it correlates with almost all other social characteristics of people that we can measure.” Loewen simply believes that social class usually determine the paths that a person will take in life. (Loewen 203)
Gregory Mantsios advocates more on the struggle to proceed from one class to another in his essay-“Class in America”. Mantsios states that, “Class standing has a significant impact on our chances for survival....
and it manifests itself in a multitude of cultural and social ways.” The author discussed the problems that occur from economic and social classes. The purpose of this argument is to debate on what kind of people will be successful in life. Everyone has a shot at being successful, and that they do with it is
Ubiquitous throughout history and across cultures is the concept of rich versus poor. Almost all people fall on a spectrum moving from poverty to affluence. A person’s position on this spectrum is labeled by sociologists as their socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status, often abbreviated as SES, is measured by a person’s income, education, and career. Socioeconomic status is a pinnacle factor in a person’s life, affecting their lifestyle, relationships, and even, as with Dick and Perry, criminal potential. Low socioeconomic status has been shown to correlate with chronic stress, education inequality, and a variety of health problems including hypertension,
Mantsios believes that Americans do not like to talk about the different classes, whether it is about the upper, middles or lower class. He outlines four myths that are widely held about class in the United States. Myth one the united states is fundamentally a classless society, myth two we are, essentially a middle class nation. Most Americans have achieved relative affluence in what is widely recognized as a consumer society. Myth three we are all getting richer. Each generation propels itself to greater economic well-being. And myth four, everyone has an equal chance to succeed. Requires no more than hard work sacrifice and perseverance (Mantsios).
(p1) Broadly speaking, class is about economic and social inequality… (p6) We have a tendency for groups of advanced people to congregate together, and groups of disadvantaged people to congregate so that inequalities persist from generation to generation.
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
Rothenberg, P. 1998. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States. New York: St. Martin's Press.
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...
In the essay, "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios asserts that Americans avoid recognizing differences in economic class inherent in our society. Rather, endorsing the belief that their respective status in economic terms is derived as a direct result of their skin color, ethnicity, or where they reside. Mantsios distinguishes four central notions that the general U.S. populace possesses in relation to economic prosperity. In brief, he elicits core beliefs endorsed by the masses that conclude everyone is treated equally, that we are essentially a bourgeois society, that prosperity is broadly increasing, and that every person has an opportunity for success. Mantsios details certain statistical realities in America demonstrating immense differences
Social and economic class is something we as Americans like to push into the back of our minds. Sometimes recognizing our class either socially or economically can almost be crippling. When individuals recognize class, limitations and judgment confront us. Instead, we should know it is important to recognize our class, but not let it define and limit us. In the essay, “Class in America”, Gregory Mantsios, founder and director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education at the School of Professional Studies, brings to light the fact that Americans don’t talk about class and class mobility. He describes the classes in extremes, mainly focusing on the very sharp divide between the extremely wealthy and extremely poor. In contrast, George
In the article, "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios shows us how what class individuals are in affect their lives more than they think. The author thinks Americans, don’t like to talk about class no matter is upper class, middle class, or lower class. He describes four beliefs about class in America and then he used statistical evidence to refute them. In this article I have deep feelings about the class. Here have two points first of all I thinks the class that you are in it will affect your life whatever you admit it to yourself or not another point is the class you are affects how you are succeeding in school it all affect your future. Class, will affect in the future what job you will find, what kind person you will meet. For example the