Economic Class
Economic “Class”
” What barriers make it difficult for the poor to change their economic class?” There are several examples that can be given and this paper will outline some of the reasoning. Barriers can be anything from inherited social standings, to birth wealth, or even geographical locations, even to the amount of funding for extracurricular activity, racial and gender domination are also a barrier. There are many different things causing there to be barriers causing it hard for people to change the barrier of economic class. Keeping a good social standard is sometimes difficult to sustain, making it hard to change. Author Gregory Mantsios “Class in America” in 2003, has many different ideas on the way economic class is. Social standings and consequently life chances are largely determined at birth. Individuals who have gone from rags to riches abound in the mass media, statistics on class mobility show these leaps to be extremely rare (Mantsios711). Most economic success is because of the wealth that these individuals receive at birth. Over 66 percent of the consumer units with incomes of $100,000 or more have inherited assets (Mantsios711). In the stories that are read in most cases there is more wealth due to being born into it than earning it by hard work. Most people do not choose to be put into an economic class; rather it happens on its own. If someone grows up knowing only low income or having very little as a child, they seem to carry that on with them as they get older. It is hard to go from something you’re used to all your life to something so different. Poverty is a very difficult barrier to overcome, no matter where someone is from or where they now live. Author Diana George “Changing the Faces of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation”.2001 writes, “You don’t have to leave your own country to find third-world poverty.” (George623). Most groups that are asking for money to help the starving children are usually in a
” What barriers make it difficult for the poor to change their economic class?” There are several examples that can be given and this paper will outline some of the reasoning. Barriers can be anything from inherited social standings, to birth wealth, or even geographical locations, even to the amount of funding for extracurricular activity, racial and gender domination are also a barrier. There are many different things causing there to be barriers causing it hard for people to change the barrier of economic class. Keeping a good social standard is sometimes difficult to sustain, making it hard to change. Author Gregory Mantsios “Class in America” in 2003, has many different ideas on the way economic class is. Social standings and consequently life chances are largely determined at birth. Individuals who have gone from rags to riches abound in the mass media, statistics on class mobility show these leaps to be extremely rare (Mantsios711). Most economic success is because of the wealth that these individuals receive at birth. Over 66 percent of the consumer units with incomes of $100,000 or more have inherited assets (Mantsios711). In the stories that are read in most cases there is more wealth due to being born into it than earning it by hard work. Most people do not choose to be put into an economic class; rather it happens on its own. If someone grows up knowing only low income or having very little as a child, they seem to carry that on with them as they get older. It is hard to go from something you’re used to all your life to something so different. Poverty is a very difficult barrier to overcome, no matter where someone is from or where they now live. Author Diana George “Changing the Faces of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation”.2001 writes, “You don’t have to leave your own country to find third-world poverty.” (George623). Most groups that are asking for money to help the starving children are usually in a
Cited: George, Diana. "Changing the Face of Poverty: Nonprofits and the Problem of Representation." 2001. The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings. Ed. Richard Bullock and Maureen Daly Goggin. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 622-33. Print. Mantsios, Gregory. "Class in America-2003." 2004. The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings. Ed. Richard Bullock and Maureen Daly Goggin. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 697-717. Print. Singer, Peter. "The Singer Solution to World Poverty." 2009. The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings. Ed. Richard Bullock and Maureen Daly Goggin. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 873-80. Print.