Middle Class

My junior year in college, I had a great sociology professor (I majored in engineering, but something about sociology piqued my interest). He was great for many reasons, but one that stands out was an experiment he did one day in class. He asked all of us to write down on a piece of paper what "class" we thought we belonged to. 39 out of 40 said middle class. His point was that class is such a taboo topic that most of us do not give it much thought and thus label ourselves as "average" or "middle". He made some more points but they were lost on me as his experiment was so effective that it had me off in my own world for the rest of the day. I was thinking about what exactly the "middle class" in America is, and why. Will history look upon the American middle class as an empowered group of individuals, or sheep that are ruled over by dominating overseers? The more and more I thought about it, the closer my conclusion shifted towards the latter. What follows are some thoughts I have had on class in America.

• 401(k) and other retirement plans differ on their methods, but on a macroscopic level, the principle is the same: to give a rate of return just high enough that someone is required to work their entire life for a company (most of us work for companies other than our own) before they have enough money to go away and die.
  
• Class has always been a divisive issue, which is why the mass media outlets don't talk about it. They are owned by the "upper" or "ruling" class which does not want the "middle" and "lower" classes to realize exactly what is going on.
  
• Our neighborhoods are too homogenous. There are very few socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods anymore. This means that we tend to live with, work with, befriend, and grow up around people of similar socioeconomic standing. We become complacent with our situation even if we can achieve (deserve?) more.
  
• This has been written about ad nauseum, but the obsession with celebrity is a plague. By living vicariously through the escapades of these celebrities and reality show contestants, it makes it that much easier to put our own life issues (good and bad) at arm's length. This results in a diminished need to think critically about our own lives, the prerequisite of social and financial freedom.
  
• Regardless of political or socioeconomic structure, I believe there will always be some sort of class or caste system. There are some people that tend to follow some that tend to lead. Some extort and some are ignorant enough to be extorted.
  

 

Whether or not you agree with these thoughts, I hope they incite some thought as to why you are where you are. Once you have a greater idea of what structures are in place to shape your life, you will be empowered to take better control of your life.