Between the years of 1980-2001, the middle class (inclusive of upper, middle, and lower middle) showed a decline of 7.6%. This is not a very large percentage and this fact will be useful in understanding where the mobility occurred. These data illustrate the decline in the middle class as translating more to increases in the upper class rather than increases in the lower class, which over the same period show a 1.5 % decline (lower class decline to what is termed "permanent underclass"). Marx argued that discontent of the workers (lower class) would necessitate revolution; in the United States, discontent is negated. Brainwashed (or brain dead) individuals aspire (life long) to upper class status defined in monetary terms only. “Any child can grow up to be president” (MacLeod 2005). “The norm of ambition, and a general sense of fellowship with the elite (is encouraged). Each individual is encouraged to think of himself as competing for an elite position so that loyalty to the system and conventional attitudes are cultivated in the process of preparation for this possibility. It is essential that this futuristic orientation be kept alive by delaying a sense of final irreparable failure to reach elite status until attitudes are well established. By thinking of himself in the successful future the elite aspirant forms considerable identification with elitist, and evidence that they are merely ordinary human beings like himself helps to reinforce this identification as well as to keep alive the conviction that he himself may someday succeed in like manner. To forestall rebellion among the disadvantaged majority, then, a contest system of mobility (< such as that in the United States>) must avoid absolute points of selection for mobility and immobility and must delay clear recognition of the realities of the situation until the individual is too committed to the system to change radically” (Turner 2005). Inclusion and admittance (restricted and limited) to upper class status provides impetus for peers and surrounding society. The system by design works to perpetuate itself and therefore its inequality. Yes the middle class is shrinking, of equal significance is the extinction of the lower class.
Having already been called a Socialist on this site I was leary about this post....In a patriachial world a system inclusive of merit seems a better fit for my circumstance, female, Black, and single.....although the notion of a nationalized health care system among others is attractive... These statistics are eye opening and the way in which we are manipulated is that also...I posted this knowledge in the hopes that someone may benefit from it as I did....
posted by jamma54
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