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Socio-economic factors influence health and well-being
American middle class lifestyle
Socio-economic factors influence health and well-being
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The middle class has no specific definition with a number of experts defining it by income and others defining it by their lifestyle. If we were to say the middle class is characterized by income that amount would be between 46,960- 140,000 according to CNN. A survey reports that while 70 percent of Americans consider themselves middle class only about 50 percent are. While this sounds terrific the actuality is that the middle class has been shrinking with wages staying the same and the cost of living continues to rise. Those who personally identified with middle class, regardless of whether they fell into the income bracket considered the being of middle class as those living in comfort without financial stress. The middle class can be bolstered
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.
I consider my family and I to be in the middle class category and from being in the middle class, and the facts that are provided, the middle class is slowly declining as the time goes on. I believe that a lot of people go beyond the middle class to the upper middle class or people go below the middle class to the poor category. I’ve found a graph from Forbes that compares the rates of all classes from 1979 to 2014. From observing the graph my initial hypothesis was right. The middle class has declined by 6.8% between the years 1979-2014.
In America, our society is categorized by the poor, working, middle, upper middle, or upper class. Majority of America today seems to be under the working to middle class. It's hard to tell what
The middle class itself is part of an idea originally proposed by Max Weber. Max Weber was a Philosopher from the 19th century, who is today considered one of the founders of sociology. His key proposal was that class divisions were the most important source of social conflict, and that
The middle class wore nothing overpriced. They tended to wear clothing that was well-made but not to expensive. Middle class men wore nice suits but not as expensive as the higher class. Women in the middle class wore nice skirts with a nice
When we first broke into our groups, I was a bit confused as to why we were doing this exercise. I thought that it was probably had to do with sharing ideas of being in a privileged socioeconomic status so we could merge groups afterward and share what we brainstormed, which turned out to be correct. I wasn’t surprised to be included in the middle-upper class group because for where I stood during the “privilege line” activity. One difference that was noted in our group was how it felt to be in the middle-upper class group. I said that I felt a bit of pride because the reason for why I was in this class was because of how my mother worked to overcome oppression. Other people said they felt guilty because they didn’t have to work for anything they had today, and almost everything they had was inherited. I now understand why they felt that way because of the reading for this week.
What comes into my mind when thinking on how to categorize those people that belong in the middle class, I look at such things as education, race, family, income, gender and how many people are in your household. I look at it as those people who are making between $40,000 and about $85,000 to be in the middle class while the next step would be the upper middle class and then to the upper class. Maybe I am wrong here, but like I said before, everyone wants to have that “I am middle class” attitude. The most recent Census Bureau survey data shows that the share of households with incomes of $75,000 or more has doubled in the past 24 years. Other studies, however, discover that more people who depart the middle class move down than up, at least temporarily.
Let's take it back to the past in regards to wealth distribution in this country. The fact is that the economy boomed from the end of WWII into the 1970's. “Incomes grew rapidly and at roughly the same rate up and down the income ladder, roughly doubling in inflation-adjusted terms between the late 1940s and early 1970s” (CBPP). Through the 70's economic growth slowed, and the wealth gap widened. Middle-class families were now considered lower class. People relied on the government to help them out with welfare programs. The middle-class class was weakened and the gap grew and grew. There were periods of positive fluctuation, however the middle-class simply never regained it's status that was held in more prosperous times in the past.
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 themselves as being as normal, or as ordinary as they come. While that seems to be the common thought, there are plenty of middle class families that aren't as normal as they think. Depending on what class you belong to, your perception of "normal" tends to vary. So what exactly is "normal" to the average, middle, working class family?
America has always seen as the symbolic ideal country of prosperity and equality. This is the reason why people come to America hoping to become successful, but in matter of fact we all have an equal plan field to be successful is not entirely true. For there are social boundaries that keep use limited based upon our own status. Whether we are born of a low class or of a high class the possibility of economic mobility in a sense are predetermined by two factors of social class and success together they both affecting one’s another opportunity of success. In order to achieve success, we must know that it is made up of two main concepts and they are fortune and position. But when a person is limited by their class prohibiting them to achieve success, the point of trying is meaningless. However, there is a way to break the construct that keep groups stuck in the lower-class and is through education. Education gives more opportunities for success to the individuals and since education is very important, culture and the government should focus more directly upon this to reach economic stability. Class standing directly affects economic success in America by limiting a person’s chance of success however; one can overcome by focusing more upon education and culture.
Over the past few years, the income gap between low-income families and high-income families has increased drastically. In the article “10 Practical Steps to Reverse This Diabolical Trend Is Threatening the Foundations of Our Society,” Robert Reich states, “The Congressional Budget Office has found that between 1979 and 2007. . .The gap in income-after federal taxes and transfer-more than tripled between the top 1 percent of the population and everyone else.” As seen in our society, the distribution of wealth is unfair and unjust, which has increased income inequality and will eventually create poverty. As a result, the number of people living in poverty is increasing rapidly. It may seem that income inequality is inevitable, but there are solutions to lessen the gap, like investing in education, hiring American workers instead of overseas workers who accept low pay, and increasing taxes on the wealthy.
Many problems are being shown and expressed in America today. One of these problems is amongst the classes in society. I believe there are major problems amongst the classes, but most importantly the middle class, which include many different solutions for fixing these problems in the class.
The Untouchable by Thomas L. Friedman speaks about the world being flat, which is “the stunning rise of middle classes all over the world (pg. 323).” He explains how the American society is becoming global. This globalization that is occurring in today’s society is leading children in America to have a competing mindset against cultures such as the Chinese. We have to begin to think wise and know what route we have to take in life in order to flourish or survive. There will plenty of jobs out there; however, they will only be open to those people with the right knowledge, self motivation, ideas and skill.
In America it is based on the relations of property and power and the division of social classes in the United States, the most basic class distinction is between the powerful and the powerless. Social classes groups are the upper class have a great deal of power which usually are viewed as the elites within their own societies. In general usage, the elite is a hypothetical group of relatively small size that is dominant within a large society, having a privileged status perceived as being envied by others. Various social and political theories propose that social classes with greater power attempt to strengthen their own ranking above the lower classes. The upper class has more power because there are some people who are wealthy and do have
Middle class is defined in different ways by different people. For example, Easterly describes middle class “as those lying between the 20th and 80th percentile on the consumption distribution” (Banerjee and Duflo 5); or Birdsall, Graham, and Pettinato says this class “as those between 75 and 125 percent of median per capita income” (Banerjee and Duflo 7). In America, people are divided into classes by many factors. The most popular factors are income and education. For income, people in this class make less money than upper class. Pew 's analysis in the article of Philip Bump says that middle class “holds less aggregate income than the upper class”; this is true. However, people in this class have better jobs and salaries than poor class. The working poor tend to have less stable jobs than their middle class brothers. Because of the temporary nature of these jobs, they have a