Hard Working Stereotypes

“The Working Class: Disproving the Stereotypes of ‘Hardly Working’” The year was 1976. The presidential race was starting to pick up, with all of the nomination hopefuls attempting to make their mark. At one of the campaign stops, one of the two candidates from the Republican party, former governor of California Ronald Reagan stepped up onto the stage to speak. He knew the speech he was about to give, as he performed it at almost every stop, according to the press accounts following him. "There's a woman in Chicago," Reagan says. "She has 80 names, 30 addresses, 12 Social Security cards. She's got Medicaid, getting food stamps and she is collecting welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000." With a single speech, Reagan was able to establish the single story of the “Welfare Queen”, building the stereotype that will define the working poor for the next 40 years. This narrative is always about someone, usually of the working poor or underclass, who abuses the benefits given to them.
In the book ‘America’s Poor and the Great Recession’ by Kristin S. Seefeldt and John D. Graham, the reasoning that in a post-recession world, having two sections of an extreme poor and an extreme rich are becoming commonplace. The book talked about how the recession was just a reaction to how much power the 1% are getting, and how their recklessness caused an economic crisis America hadn’t seen since the 1930’s. In conclusion, the authors came to the answer that not only is becoming easier to fall into the hole of poverty, it’s becoming harder to climb out, and all because of the higher-ups. It may be because the middle class are afraid to fall into the hole of poverty themselves, and the myth makes them more comfortable, knowing that they are not “lazy”, or “undereducated”. The upper class, on the other hand, might be trying to deflect the blame. “It’s not OUR fault!”, they