Will there always be a defined upper class, middle class, and poor class in America?

Question

I was having a discussion with a friend and he thinks that there will always be a percentage of americans in these three classes and I believe otherwise. I think the middle class is going away and that in the future we will just have a upper class and poor class. That with time the middle class will disappear. What does America think? I really like some good input and if anyone knows where i can find some articles on this please send them my way.

Answer 1

The middle class are already considered to be "the working poor" in some areas. I do think the middle class will eventually disappear as so much of the wealth is concentrated and controlled by a select few.

This blog raises some good points about the end of the middle class- http://bloggy.com/mt/archives/000345.html

Harvard magazine also has a very good article that explains the problems that plaque the middle class. http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/010682.html

Hope I was able to help some :)

Answer 2

You're exactly right! Eventually, there will be only two classes of people within the United States Of America. There will the be rich upper class and the poor working class. The gap between the haves and the have nots is only widening. More of the tax burden is being taken off of the richest 1% of our country and being shifted onto the middle class, poor and working poor. 99% of Americans were net losers under the Bush tax cuts. For every $1.00 in federal tax cuts the government gave them, they were stuck holding a bill for $3.74 in debt. So what do we do? Well, the easy answer is vote Democrat. However, the Democrats are not without their flaws. What we need to do is shake up the two-party system and STOP electing Rich people to office and STOP electing ANYONE; Democrat, Republican, Independent, Whoever, who may have conflicts of interest. DEMAND accountability, and DEMAND transparency in government. TAKE THE POWER BACK!

Answer 3

Depends on the social environment.

Im rusty on this but Karl Marx discusses it in Communism, where he believes the gap between the poor and the rich will grow larger and larger, shrinking the middle class, which will lead to conflict between the upper and lower class.

On the other hand, some other influential guy whose name I forgot (Weber?), states that the democratic world is able to avoid this path because its voting system allows the majority class to be heard and that during the cold war, the middle class flourished due to capitalism reaching the mass middle class instead of just the fraction of upper class.

Look up some sociological history and maybe you'll get more indepth description. There is no right answer as different countries have different social structures that may sway them to certain directions.

Answer 4

CLASSES ARE NOT DETERMINED BY INCOME!!!!!! There are only three: Upper, middle and lower. Classes are determined by "quality of life," so if you are in the top 10% of income and still live in a shitty home (drive a shitty car etc..) you are still middle class. And if you are in the bottom 5% income and still live in a house and have basic comforts, you arent lower class, you are middle class. Classes arent determined by how much money you gain by working hard, they are determined by how well you live (quality of life). For example, an old person with a really low income (living in a home) has a high level of comfort depending on how much their family pays. Therefore they are middle class, even if that persons income is practically nonexistant. This is why both communism and capitalism is flawed. One struggles to equalize money, while the other struggles to unequalize it. A perfect system of government would equalize and increase QUALITY OF LIFE. But that is what you get for being obsessed with money instead of the things we actually NEED.

Answer 5

The 'polarization' of money toward the well-off is pathetic.
Hopefully over time with a Democratic President and both chambers being the same, the middle and lower classes will improve reasonably well.
As far as 'defining' the 3 classes you have referred to - yep - it can't be stopped.
When the repubs took over both chambers in 1994 and virtually put Clinton's money policies on 'permanant' hold, the damage done by the repubs in the last 12 yrs is irreversable for all intents and purposes - the worst offender being W., 43, idiot, whatever you want to 'name' him.

Answer 6

The upper class has a much smaller percentage of the population yet it has a majority of the wealth. This gap is increasing and will continue to grow worse as long as the rich continue to be treated better than middle or lower class. I think our biggest problem is that most politicians are wealthy and I have never met a politician with the same interests as I have. These poopeaters are what make this gap continue to expand while deleting our middle class.

Answer 7

If you listen to some liberals you'd think that things were better for the poor people under Clinton or some other periods. Fact is the US Census statistics show a decline in the percentage of Americas officially classified as living in poverty.

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/histpov/hstpov3.html

Under Clinton we had about 20% of Americans in poverty and now its closer to 17%. Of course of definition of poverty has been changing a lot. Now a family of 4 has to earn less than $22,000 a year to be considered in poverty.

And what of the middle class? Well, the system of captalism pretty much allows one to rise out of poverty. In America a person can easily rise out of poverty simply by joining the volunteer military, or by getting a college education, or running a fairly successful private business.

In my case, I grew up in deep poverty. My mother grew up as a farm worker and only received a 4th grade education. My father got sick when I was a kid and never held another job. We lived off of government welfare. We had no car, no phone, no Christmas, no trips to McDonalds, etc... When I was 16 I started working and everything I earned went to support the family.. I never dated, I never attended a high school dance, etc.. I went to college by using a work program, a loan, and an opportunity grant for low income students. Then I continued on through graduate school. Bingo, I was out of poverty. Today I am a millionaire.. My story is repeated over and over throughout America.. You don't have to be unusually to break the cycle of poverty in America.

Answer 8

What would be the defining line between rich and poor be, 100k, 200k? We are a capitalist society, so people will always be able to make varying amounts of money with jobs from Janitor to middle manager to CEO. The middle class will always be there, but the gap may divide, not disapear.

Answer 9

i think a lot of americans are seriously confused about what middle class is. i'm sorry, but a lot of people who think they are middle class, are just being fed this image so you will continue to work for your "american dream" and support the actual middle class and upper class.

for example a lot of people think my family has a lot of money, but in reality that is nothing compared to celebrities/ceo's/politicians/ old money/etc, who are the ones with the real money & power. so, technically, my family is the middle class... the people who have money, but are just not "rich enough"... which is what middle class is supposed to be

so what i think is happening is not that the middle class is disappearing, just that people are finally starting to realize that they are actually poor. as more & more realize this, there might just be a revolution... which im sure the upperclass are afraid of... so they keep feeding these "middle class" fantasies to people making a combined family income of like 60,000 LOL!! while they drive around in cars worth more than my home.

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also, as a response to what wally wrote:

"Under Clinton we had about 20% of Americans in poverty and now its closer to 17%. Of course of definition of poverty has been changing a lot. Now a family of 4 has to earn less than $22,000 a year to be considered in poverty."

another facade, my friend. you are forgetting about INFLATION. have you noticed how much more expensive everything is? people are getting paid more money, but it ends up being worth the same thing, if not less. but the gov can still claim that "omg there is less poverty because people are being paid more money"....whether it's 100 pennies or 4 quarters... you still have a dollar, dude

Answer 10

Well you can choose either that or you can choose to have a class of very wealthy and very poor people. You could try to go live on a commune somewhere but I dont think the hardship you would put up with are worth the small amount of social justice you get.