Edward McCelland expresses his concern for the decrease
in opportunities for the middle class which in turn, causes a huge shrink in
the middle class, in RIP, the Middle
Class: 1946-2013. McCelland gives the reader a background of this
continuing problem. He asserts that back in the 70’s one could easily drop out
of high school and obtain a high paying job in the field of steel working and
auto mechanics. To put this into perspective he claims, “I’ve always believed
that the 70’s are remembered as the Decade That Taste Forgot because they were
a time when people without culture or education had the money to not only
indulge their passions, but flaunt them in front of the entire nation” (550).
This is a sharp contrast to today’s economy where technological advances has
taken over what used to be thousands of job opportunities. McCelland concludes
that it is inevitably the governments fault for the collapsing middle class.
The American Dream is no longer accessible to the majority of Americans now due
to how much competition there now is entering the work force. Once now needs
extensive schooling in order to receive the same job that you could get with
none years ago. Hard work does not guarantee success anymore.
From
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich tells the story of a
desperate maid who works so hard for little pay. The company takes advantage of
their desperate employees and it is shown as the maid questions the fairness of
the system, “The Maids charges $25 per person-hour. The company gets $25 and we
get $6.65 for each hour we work?” (2). Through this story it is shown how the
America Dream is not usually what one expects. The labor performed by the maid
is hard on her body and customers are demanding. The company also takes great
advantage of them, not giving them the pay or lunch breaks they rightfully
deserve.
In the United States, constantly you hear of this American Dream idea. That a man without a “proper education” can support his family fully. That he can maintain a mortgage, a car note, and pick up another job if he wants to. Unfortunately, I strongly believe that this American dream is not accessible anymore. Edward McClelland’s RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013, explains just that. McClelland perfectly sums up the changes from the 1970s, 80’s, 90’s, all the way to his publish date. The economy can’t support the American dream like McClelland claims, that the middle class is becoming one of the losers in the economic standing. He emphasizes that the problem is not failure of capitalism but of the government. That for the majority of human history, there has only been two classes, aristocracy and peasantry, which proves that the government isn’t doing its job. The reason why the American dream isn’t accessible is because of the American Government itself. McClelland didn’t give a solution to the problem but his point is strong.
ReplyDeleteDo the wealthy people have a responsibility to care for the poor? In my opinion I think that wealthy people do not have to care for the poor. That is what the government is there for and that is why there are laws along with taxes that take money out of every citizen to make sure that we are all contributing equally to our economy despite how much money we make. It should be clarified that the small taxes that poor people pay are not the exact same for wealthier people they have much higher taxes that would equal the same percentage that is taken out every year. Just because less fortunate or envious people don’t make as much money as the more “fortunate” or in other words wealthier people it doesn’t mean that an extra pressure need to be added on to them because some one else is having a much harder time getting their financial situation figured out. Although they are wealthier they are no less different to you and I, they still have family problems, parents, sisters suffering in hospitals and the list of problems goes on, so why is it that the problems of others should be added on the the many that they already have. In “From Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich, she talks about the struggle of being a house Maid is and how all the people that are probably working for this Maid company are desperate for money. Within the text this young girl is working for this company as a high school student nothing more than a summer job most likely to start making money. When she starts hearing all the problems of her co-workers and how they barley make enough for their children and so on she just listens. In the end when she arrives home and showers through a rough day of work she is so happy to have all the water in her shower. Even if she isn’t a high school student and is a single working person she is still working as hard and as diligently as anyone else, the fact that she doesn’t have kids although its not a bad thing, allows her to have more money for her to spend on herself, leading to the end when she watches the guitar players sing. In her situation just because she has a little more money to spare doesn’t mean she should be responsible for her coworker’s kids and paying for their day care because she has other issues of her own to take care of. Similar dilemma with “RIP , the Middle Class:1946-2013” by Edward McClelland he talks about the struggle that he and fellow works had to endure around the time of recession and how jobs became very scare for those who were unskilled workers. In my opinion in the text when they said they dropped out of the university to get a higher paying job in another city, was a personal mistake that they shouldn’t have risked. The decision that they made to choose and unskilled job pay over the opportunity to get educated was a bargain that was not vert well taken. And because his out comings weren’t so great he looked to point the blame to others and want them to worry about his problems and help him solve it because of a little mistake he made in the 50’s.
ReplyDelete