This whole 'welfare for Wall Street' situation has me thinking about class issues. I think it’s important that we examine why class delineation is pervasive. American class division is clearly sustained by our government welfare programs, our educational system, and myths of the American dream of rags-to-riches. The structures of corporation (taking advantage of loopholes, providing no or poor benefits for workers, and preventing unions) also upholds class divisions. But to what end? I think with all the information we are reading, its becoming clear that the top 5% and corporations benefit financially from class divides.
American systems work together in a cycle that brings huge profits to large corporations by demoralizing workers, maintaining economic and class stratus through failed government systems, and supporting myths and ideologies that support class striation. I see the cycle going as follows. First, when people work for companies in which they are not paid enough to live they are stuck in a never ending cycle of desperation. This desperation requires people to take whatever they can get and not demand what they deserve. It’s like in the ‘hierarchy of needs’ says, if you’re hungry and have no place to live, you’re not thinking about finding a career that correlates with your path of self-actualization. This is a wonderful position for a company to have its employees in, because desperate people can be taken advantage of and will work for well below their value, therefore saving the company money.
Second, if we examine 'economic dependency theory', it states that wealthy nations often exploit poorer nations, which makes rich countries richer and poorer countries poorer. I think we are seeing this theory play out within our own borders as a result of capitalism. In the process of a company attempting to reach wealth of exorbitant proportions for their executives and shareholders, they exploit the lower-wage workers. This exploitation pushes low-wage workers into a government run system, welfare, which does not assist people in truly getting out of their economic or ‘class’ situation, just getting through day-to-day.
Third, changes are not made in the welfare system because myths of the American Dream, independence, bootstraps, and rags to riches are entrenched in the American lexicon, paid for and supported by big companies that dominate our print and television media. This is advertising well spent of course. It pulls at the heartstrings of the American public by touching the hope within each of us that we can independently cross the prairie, make a billion dollars, and ride off into the sunset on a horse, or in an expensive foreign car. This makes us want to buy things too because we feel inspired, but it also makes us believe we should all be capable of achieving anything at all times. This in turn makes ‘blaming the victims’ seem justified when people do not achieve the successes they hope for. Furthermore, when we blame others for their circumstances we absolve ourselves of responsibility for their situations and become complacent to improving conditions for the poor.
Why do we participate in this cycle and maintenance of class divides? There could be so many reasons, for every person we make conscious and unconscious choices that preserve the status quo. Is it because people secretly hope they’ll slog through life to the top and one day be that high paid exec? Or do we feel the need to draw a line in the sand between ‘us and them’ because the slope downhill to a lower SES or lower class feels so slippery and precariously close? I feel when we draw divides between each other, we’re only hurting ourselves, giving companies power over the management of our government, and allowing ourselves to co-opt the values companies are selling us for their own benefit.
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For more information of class issues and corporations check out:
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Race, class, and gender: An anthology (6th Ed), Edited by Anderson & Collins (2007)
- Economics for Social Workers: The application of economic theory to social policy and the human services, New York: Columbia University Press (2001)
- Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States, Census Bureau (2006)
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