Class in America-2006 Blog

Economics in the United States is...what shall I say? COMPLICATED. There are people who makes tons of money and others who only make minimum wage. These people either fall into the category of upper class or lower class...and/or maybe middle class. In "Class in America-2006", Gregory Mantsios discusses about the four beliefs about class in America. Americans do not usually speak the terms class (upper class, middle class, lower class). They usually say rich or poor. Which, to me, sounds informal and not in a very respectful way. But to Americans, it is the common language. I have noticed that we use the terms "upper class" and "lower class" in English though. According to Mantsios's research, some people do not believe that people should be categorized as "upper class". They believe no one is different because everyone has the same rights. Mantsios stated that "in politics, in primary and secondary education, and in the mass media, formulating issues in terms of class is unacceptable, perhaps even un-American" (306). Terms of class are forbidden and should be kept foreign. What can be so wrong about using  the terms of class? Must it not be used? In my opinion, I do not think it is necessary to use the terms of class. No one should be labeled as "upper class" or "lower class". It is true that some people are wealthier than others, but money should not define who they are. Belief or myth 1 is that the country is a classless society and is provided with great care and education. Myth 2 is a middle class nation. Myth 3 is everyone gaining wealth and going towards their dreams. Every generation just keeps getting better. Myth 4 is everyone having the chance to succeed without effort and hard work. I think it is impossible to succeed without effort and hard work. Some people who work really hard cannot even quite get themselves to where they WANT to be. It is not that easy. I did not realize how many billionaires there are in America. I mean...nearly 400. I think that is a lot. They are worth more than $10 billion. My question is, HOW do you get there?

I did a little research on low-wage management and such...and I found some old resources. But I plan to research more and maybe I will find some more recent ones. But I don't think that is enough. And not a lot of good articles came up. It was kind of confusing because I am not quite sure which key word(s) to type in. Maybe I will look through Rereading America and see if there is anything in there that can relate to what I want to learn more about.