Class in America

Class in America For years, the United States has been selling the idea of what is known as “the American Dream”. This means that in America, anyone can recreate him or herself and climb up the ladder of social class. The standard way of thinking about class has it that the only factor that separates the classes is money. I’ve always believed that social class is determined by upbringing, education, and money, and that all three need to be good in order to become a member of the upper class.
Upbringing is very important in determining someone’s social class. The way in which a person is raised helps shape their personality and their morals. Both of these sub-factors help determine class. As stated before, many people believe the only determining factor of class is money but someone who was raised badly and who grew up in a bad environment like the streets will never become part of the upper class, even if they become millionaires. A lot of the basketball players in the NBA earn millions of dollars a year, but that does not mean that they belong to the upper class. LeBron James is one of the highest paid basketball players but he had a tough childhood, which involved him living in many different apartments. He would be considered part of the upper-middle class because of the way he was raised by his single mother. A different player who was raised in a middle class military family is David Robinson. He was raised very well by his parents and received good morals from them. He was an officer in the US Navy and later went on to play in the NBA. He has also earned millions of dollars, but because his upbringing was better than that of James, he would be considered part of the middle-upper class.
When determining the class to which a person belongs to, education should be taken into account as it tells a lot about the person. To be a part of the upper class, one must have had a good education; although, the amount of education does not necessarily place a person in a certain class. For example, someone with a doctorate may not be in a higher class than someone with a bachelor’s degree, but the fact that they have an education help to raise their social status as a learned person. Many successful people in our society are college dropouts. They may not have graduated, but they are considered as well educated in their fields.
Finally, the third and final factor for placing a person in a certain class is the amount of money that they are worth. Money is by far the most important because it is the one factor that everyone accepts. Having money to pay the bills and living paycheck to paycheck is most common among members of the middle class. Members of the upper class usually have an excess of money and can live extravagant lifestyles and have the best of everything. These “elite” people may have inherited the money and possessions or their money may have been self-made. But in order to be a part of the upper class, a person must not have a large sum of money he must also have been brought up well by his/her parents and have had a good education. If one of these is missing, a person cannot be considered as part of the upper class.
There are three social classes and nine subclasses as each of the classes has three subclasses. For example, there is the middle-upper class, middle-middle class, upper-lower, etc. I believe it is possible for someone to change their subclass but not their actual social class. Even though someone may appear to have moved up to the upper class by wearing nicer clothes or driving a better car. The purpose of the film, “People Like Us”, was to show how members of different classes often want to be a part of a higher, or even a lower class. People sometimes fake their class in order to be accepted by a certain kind of people. These “wannabes” merely want to pose as if they are a part of the upper class in order to feel better about themselves or to seem better than others. In the movie, “People Like Us”, there is a woman who dedicates her time to showing middle class women how to dress like the upper class. The women who’s appearance she changed in the movie, felt more confident to talk to men who were above her social class just because she was wearing different clothes. Our society has become one of competition. Some people have the best cars, clothes, and house, but they do not have much furniture in their home. They spend so much money on their “bluff” that they have none left for things that matter. There are rare occasions in which a person who was raised by good lower class parents works hard in school and goes on to become a very successful. These stories of overcoming obstacles are often inspirational to people who believe that they can move up in social class by graduating from college, but this is not always true.
In his essay “Why the Rich are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer”, Robert Reich makes the statement that the poor are being replaced my immigrants, the working class is being replaced by machines and robots, and the rich are only becoming wealthier. He generalized all the people who are doing well under one term by calling them “symbolic analysts”. These are the people in our society who, as Reich stated, “solve, identify, and broker new problems.” This gap between the classes is growing larger and larger. In some occasions, the reason the working class is being replaced by machines is because some people are lazy. Many unemployed Americans are not currently seeking employment and live off of welfare checks.
In conclusion, my statements have been made on the basis of observation and the use of examples. I have used data to present the truth about class and to better understand what being a member of the upper class means and what is necessary to become a part of that class. I believe that class is unchangeable. People may change but they cannot change where they came from.