Journalist and author, Edward McClelland, writer of “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013”, clearly believes that the American middle class is dying and that it should not happen. McClelland states “For the majority of human history—and in the majority of countries today—there have been only two classes: aristocracy and peasantry” (McClelland 550). He asserts that the middle class that flourished following the end of World War II has diminished since America’s first Great Recession in the 1980s and that our federal government is to blame for the decline because it withdrew its supervision of the economy and allowed global free trade (McClelland 550-555).
He promotes his idea of the middle class through examples of its prime time when middle class thrived. McClelland emphasized his position clearly as he provided examples ranging from the glory days of the assembly line industry that provided high paying jobs for many people to the range of presidents who attempted to keep business within the United States to promote home …show more content…
McClelland utilized the aforementioned facts to direct blame toward the government for the loss of the middle class. McClelland in this statement asserts “The shrinking of the middle class is not a failure of capitalism. It’s a failure of government. Capitalism has been doing exactly what it was designed to do: concentrating wealth in the ownership class, while providing the mass of workers with just enough wages to feed, house and clothe themselves” (McClelland 553). He further advocates “That’s the natural drift of the relationship between capital and labor, and it can only be arrested by an activist government that chooses to step in as a referee” (McClelland 553). Ultimately, McClelland observed that reform is necessary and needs to happen soon to stop the decline of the middle
He promotes his idea of the middle class through examples of its prime time when middle class thrived. McClelland emphasized his position clearly as he provided examples ranging from the glory days of the assembly line industry that provided high paying jobs for many people to the range of presidents who attempted to keep business within the United States to promote home …show more content…
McClelland utilized the aforementioned facts to direct blame toward the government for the loss of the middle class. McClelland in this statement asserts “The shrinking of the middle class is not a failure of capitalism. It’s a failure of government. Capitalism has been doing exactly what it was designed to do: concentrating wealth in the ownership class, while providing the mass of workers with just enough wages to feed, house and clothe themselves” (McClelland 553). He further advocates “That’s the natural drift of the relationship between capital and labor, and it can only be arrested by an activist government that chooses to step in as a referee” (McClelland 553). Ultimately, McClelland observed that reform is necessary and needs to happen soon to stop the decline of the middle