This is why the middle class can’t get ahead

[Listen]

Great read, thanks for posting. I had never given much thought to the Overtime laws as a source of the disparity, but it makes total sense. I also was not aware of the threshold being so much higher in the 70's.

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

You really think everyone can be a CEO? You don't think secretarys serve a utility and deserve to be paid well? Don't Janitors at work allow the CEO and other workers to perform their job better by making sure thr toilets are clean and working and everyone has a clean working area?

Your vision of the world is impractical at best and stupid at worst.

Did I say anything about being a CEO? But since you brought it up, what do you think the difference is between a janitor and a CEO? Ambition? Hustle?

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

pack your bags and get out.
shyt aint changing aint time soon

So many groups.... Nazis, European monarchs, Dixiecrats, said the same........

So, so many

 

[tmonster]

Did I say anything about being a CEO? But since you brought it up, what do you think the difference is between a janitor and a CEO? Ambition? Hustle?

 

[Gains]

so it's not the Mexicans taking all the fast food jobs

 

[ADevilYouKhow]

so it's not the Mexicans taking all the fast food jobs

twism has some splainin to do

 

[88m3]

Coming from a working class/blue collar background the middle class was and is real.
Whether it still exists today is debatable... What we've seen with an increased cost of goods and stagnate wages and the the large rise in pay of the overclass has highlighted the plight of the middle class and working class.

 

[JahFocus CS]

Coming from a working class/blue collar background the middle class was and is real.
Whether it still exists today is debatable... What we've seen with an increased cost of goods and stagnate wages and the the large rise in pay of the overclass has highlighted the plight of the middle class and working class.

What is the "middle class" then? Do the vast majority of these people have to sell their labor in order to survive...? Or are most "middle class" people small business owners and the like?

People like to define "middle class" with income-based definitions... but this isn't very useful when analyzing the socioeconomic reality. What this term plays into is divisiveness and people's desire to distance themselves from what is looked down upon in this society - in this case, being "poor," which the working-class has become associated with. More than anything, it is a psychological thing. "We're not rich and we're not poor... we're middle class." But if your employer fires you, which is easy to do if you're an at-will employee... what are you then?

The "middle class" is just a paycheck or two away from facing the truth of their material position. It is a baseless identity to cling to, in all honesty.

That being said, some segments of the "middle class" may actually form an important strata of the working-class - namely, that strata which aligns its interests with the state and with bosses. Some of this is also based in identity, but I don't think it can be said that managers, DAs, police, etc. are working-class in any meaningful way, whether in interests or actions.

 

[88m3]

What is the "middle class" then? Do the vast majority of these people have to sell their labor in order to survive...? Or are most "middle class" people small business owners and the like?


People like to define "middle class" with income-based definitions... but this isn't very useful when analyzing the socioeconomic reality. What this term plays into is divisiveness and people's desire to distance themselves from what is looked down upon in this society - in this case, being "poor," which the working-class has become associated with. More than anything, it is a psychological thing. "We're not rich and we're not poor... we're middle class." But if your employer fires you, which is easy to do if you're an at-will employee... what are you then?

The "middle class" is just a paycheck or two away from facing the truth of their material position. It is a baseless identity to cling to, in all honesty.

That being said, some segments of the "middle class" may actually form an important strata of the working-class - namely, that strata which aligns its interests with the state and with bosses. Some of this is also based in identity, but I don't think it can be said that managers, DAs, police, etc. are working-class in any meaningful way, whether in interests or actions.

the passage of time has undoubtably wildly skewed our ideas of class and wealth

Skilled workers, professionals, government, small(very) business owners, rentiers(to a point), classically, imo. Nowadays those people would be considered in the top income brackets at least in the north east. Sell labor(ie "work for a living"?) in order to survive, yes and no. It's also all in how you define it.

I feel basing it on income is helpful but only tells part of the story, across the country income and cost of living wildly vary.

Absolutely. Another thing I'd like to point out is that the middle class is often equated with the working poor now. In ultra capitalistic and materialistic societies being middle class isn't seen as a favorable position to be in.

I suppose people find some comfort in falling into a group as opposed to not especially if they feel it enhances their position in society even marginally if at all.


I think about my immediate family who were military, government, athletes, electrical engineers, rentiers, and small business owners and I saw them as being middle class or upper middle class in the 40's-00's. At some point maybe they were no longer middle class? I know if I were to apply my ideas of class to myself, I don't know where I would place myself. A lot of being middle class isn't about income as much is it as about profession, I feel like. After that I suppose it would boil down to assets and then at the point can one still claim to be middle class?

 

[Street Knowledge]

70 percent of workers make less that 50,000 a year(62 percent make less than 40,000), how many people in the grand scheme of things are really "middle class"?

 

[Regular_P]

Middle Class can't get ahead because their goal was to always be middle class. Its been passed down from one generation to the next. Its the mentality. If all you strive to be in middle class then that's what you're going to be. Being middle class is stagnant in today's society.

The middle class are stuck in the mindset as well. The middle class have a sense of entitlement because they have to work 50, 60 hours a week in the job they hate, just to live that middle class life. The middle class chose that career path. They chose to take out a mortgage, 2 car notes and 3 credit cards to live middle class. Unless you're born into it are are blessed with outstanding genetics, if you want to be rich you have to be the first at something, or smarter than most. It is what it is.

You're embarrassing yourself in this thread. :smhkobe:

 

[Sensitive Blake Griffin]

Middle Class can't get ahead because their goal was to always be middle class. Its been passed down from one generation to the next. Its the mentality. If all you strive to be in middle class then that's what you're going to be. Being middle class is stagnant in today's society.

The middle class are stuck in the mindset as well. The middle class have a sense of entitlement because they have to work 50, 60 hours a week in the job they hate, just to live that middle class life. The middle class chose that career path. They chose to take out a mortgage, 2 car notes and 3 credit cards to live middle class. Unless you're born into it are are blessed with outstanding genetics, if you want to be rich you have to be the first at something, or smarter than most. It is what it is.

Oh, so becoming rich is all about your mindset? You don't even understand evolution, you don't know shyt about economics or upward mobility

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

You're embarrassing yourself in this thread. :smhkobe:

Oh, so becoming rich is all about your mindset? You don't even understand evolution, you don't know shyt about economics or upward mobility

Based on these reactions it's obvious what I wrote went over your heads. IF you don't understand the psychology of the working individual and how it's starts from the time you enter kindergarten, don't get mad at me

 

[OfTheCross]

I stopped reading almost immediately cause I'm confused at that overtime law?

I was making 40k base salary last year for a public corporation and had overtime every damn pay period...

What law is this guy talking about

 

[Insensitive]

@ posters positing that your socioeconomic status is based
on your merits.
Believe society is a meritocracy in 2014 brehs.