The Middle Class is the New Working Class
The Middle Class is shrinking. We should replace it all together with a new class.
In our previous article, we show that the middle class has been declining for the past twenty-five years. In today's article, we will explore this phenomenon a little bit more. More specifically, we're going to focus on how it's disappearing, who may be behind this, and what we can do about it.
Why is the middle class disappearing?
There are multiple reasons why the middle class is disappearing, but to simplify this, we're going to look at two reasons: inflation and wages.
We covered inflation in last week's article, and inflation isn't just a current phenomenon. Prices on goods and services have been increasing for quite some time now - well before the pandemic. And there seems to be no stopping soon.
Ideally, in a situation like this, wages (also referred to as income) would increase to reflect the increase in goods and services. But we don't. Wages have stayed relatively flat in the same timeframe that prices of goods have skyrocketed. Simply put, we're not making enough money to afford the rising cost of things.
But why aren't wages increasing? That question is the focus of this article; to answer it; we must look at who is supplying the population with their income.
The Corporations
To answer the question of who oversees the country's wages, we need to look at who provides the county with its jobs. Census data1 from 2012 (updated in 2021) shows that over 80% of jobs in America are by enterprises that have more than 20 workers. These enterprises are known as corporations.
Since corporations employ most Americans, they can raise their employees' income - especially since their employees are helping the company meet new goals and objectives. However, with each new profit-breaking year for corporations, wages barely move for their employees.
So as our current situation shows, we have rising inflation prices (9%), companies with record-breaking years, yet the working population gets a modest 3% increase yearly. Where is the outcry?
Loving your Enemy
For a multitude of reasons, there are none. One theory is that we don't rebel against what's happening because we love our corporations. Or better yet, we've been taught to love our corporations.
How this happened is the intriguing part. Welcome to the world of propaganda.
Long story short, through a series of well-placed propagandized media - specifically in the form of tv shows - we've come to see corporations and their billionaire owners as relatable, favorable guys, just like us. According to Author Alissa Quart, we've fallen in love with billionaires and want to be just like them. From the Guardian2, we read the following:
Of course, television has always been an escape into aspiration but what's interesting about 1% TV, Quart notes, is how it humanizes the elite. "I love the show Billions," Quart explains. "But the main character is basically a hedge fund scumbag, and he's the hero. In all these shows, you're rooting for the success of these rapacious people, while in the past you had shows like Upstairs Downstairs, where you were always on the maid's side." And it's not just on TV that we're rooting for the 1%. We live in a time where billionaires have fan clubs. Indeed, Elon Musk's fans recently set up a GoFundMe and sent the entrepreneur a couch because they were worried about the billionaire having to sleep on the Tesla factory floor.
And that's the problem.
By seeing their lifestyles and hearing their stories, we see ourselves in them. We begin to associate them with us. We begin to love their companies and the stories they tell: the little engine that could, David vs. Goliath, and so forth. We become infatuated with the narratives and stories by corporations about corporations; we don't bat an eye when corporations perform unscrupulous acts, like raking in billions in revenue but paying fewer taxes than you or I.
We admire these companies to the point where we don't realize we're getting screwed over.
But to some of us, these corporations have been good to us. We have a high income - and we would even say we may be "higher-middle" class, so we don't have a problem.
That is, there lies another problem.
The Working Class.
New data3 on the middle class is starting to stratify it into "upper, middle, lower" - middle class. Sounds flowery, but at the end of the day, it's still the middle class. And what used to be the class of the American Dream is dwindling faster and faster.
No longer can the middle class have one income and afford the amenities that previous middle classes could. And if trends stay their course, today's high middle class will become tomorrow's low middle class. So is there truly a remaining middle class? As the Guardian puts it, “something certainly needs to change soon in America – or else everyone except the rich will be squeezed out.”
So what can be done about this?
First, we must come to terms with the gravity of the situation. Whether we're high, middle, or lower middle class, the truth is that it's getting harder and will continue to get more complicated for us to maintain our way of living. No matter how the latest propaganda attempts to paint the narrative, prices are rising, and wages are staying flat.
Second, to emphasize this fact much more profoundly, it may help to look at the middle class in a whole new light as the working class. The title "working class" is currently associated with the lower class. But, aside from income, what separates the two classes? The ability to generate wealth that the middle class once had is withering, so what truly separates the two?
Second Thought4 has a great YouTube video addressing this, and from it, we hear the following:
Society is divided into two classes, not three, not four, not seven. On the one hand, there are those who need to work to live, and on the other, those who have the privilege to make other people work, so they don't have to.
To summarize the video, the working class is that which exchanges their time and energy for income. Our current middle class and lower class do this, so why not combine the two classes? This simplification also clarifies our newly termed "working class" from the other remaining class, the capitalist.
The capitalist is that who has the privilege to make other people work so they don't have to. They use their time and energy to grow their income from the resources they own. These resources could be property, stocks, or even corporations.
So to simplify things:
The capitalist uses their time and energy to generate income from the resources they own. These resources are property, stocks, or corporations.
The working class uses their time and energy to generate income from a corporation.
By viewing society through this simplified lens, we no longer see any separation between the different middle classes (upper, middle, and low) or differences between the middle and lower classes. If you aren't in the capitalist class, then my friend, you're part of the working class.
Next Steps.
As stated before, here at Unorthodoxy, our goal isn't just to provide information but to take that information and make it applicable. With the information presented here, our next steps present themselves in the form of self-reflection questions.
First, is our middle class shrinking since our wages are not increasing to match the increasing prices? If we're employed by a corporation making record profits, why are we not seeing rising wages? Why are we not outraged by this?
Second, if we remove income and the ability to generate wealth from the definition of the middle class, what separates the middle from the lower class? Are both classes not part of the working class - exchanging time and energy for an income?
If this is the reality, our next steps are to ask ourselves: how can we take back some power to ensure we don't get swept away by the shrinking working class? Or better yet, is it possible to escape the working class and become part of the capitalist class - one that generates income from the resources they own?
Throughout the following articles, we'll dive into such topics and resources that will help each of us develop our unique strengths and character. Ultimately, the goal is that we can build our skills and provide a resource of value to the world - in which we get compensated for it. Based on our skillsets, transactions begin to occur that can set us on the path to escape the worker class and climb into the capitalist class.
That is a goal here at Unorthodoxy, and I hope you all become part of the journey.
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Census.gov | https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/econ/g12-susb.pdf
Guardian | https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/20/alissa-quart-squeezed-interview-struggling-middle-class
Money.usnews | https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/where-do-i-fall-in-the-american-economic-class-system
SecondThought Homepage | https://www.patreon.com/secondthought