The Missing Class: an Analysis of the Themes and Applicable Theories

In The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America (2007), Katherine Newman and Victor Tan Chen explore the lives of several urban, working families who live above the official poverty line, but who are one catastrophe away from it. Entrenched within the stories of these families’ lives, the authors explore themes and key issues which permeate many discussions of poverty, including gentrification of neighborhoods, credit card debt, lack of health care, childcare and education challenges, and the complex web of family relationships which serve as a support system for those who need it most. Yet, this book also tells the story of how we, as a society, ignore the near poor, preferring to focus on those living below the poverty line (the ones we feel obligated to help) and those living well above the poverty line in a financially stable existence. In The Missing Class, Newman and Chen introduce readers to the anecdotal stories of nine families struggling to survive in order to advance understanding of key issues and promotion of social policy change. Conflict theory contends that there must always be people at the bottom of the food chain. I struggle with the concept that we are working in an intrinsically unjust economic system; consequently, this possibility makes the “American Dream” seem futile and hopeless. How can the “American Dream” survive in a system that must replace those who are upwardly mobile by moving others downward? In this system, there simply isn’t enough space or resources for everyone to reach a certain level of comfort in their lies. The Missing Class illuminates this point again and again. For example, Gloria was once a woman who was able to support herself comfortably, but upon being diagnosed with cancer, she began the quick descent to poverty. Johnson (2006) describes the “zero sum” society where “one person’s gain is always someone else’s loss” (pg. 45). According to this theory, Gloria’s loss of a well-paying job