Middle Class Social Class
772 Words
4 Pages
In the United States, the population is divided into six major social classes, which are influenced by many variables (Hurst, 15). The six social classes include: capitalist class, upper middle class, middle class, working class, working poor, and underclass (Hurst, 16). Class consciousness is a concept in which a person must have a shared sense of belongingness and understanding in a certain social class, and I feel that I would relate most to the middle class growing up. Because I am a broke college student, describing my life growing up in the middle class would be easier than explaining my current living situation. I would consider myself a member of the middle class based off my parents’ income, childhood living situation, and education
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Based off the graphic, my dad is considered part of the 59th percentile while taking his occupation, education, income, and wealth into consideration. My dad is an electrician and was the only one working in my household for most of my life, as my mom was a homemaker and babysitter for about 10 years until she started working for Delta airlines in 2014. Electricians are ranked as 135 out of 447 jobs for prestige, according to the NYT graphic, and are also thought of as a middle class job. Aside from that, a key element to know is that I am from Hawai’i where the cost of living is awfully expensive. On average, my dad’s income is around $90,000 a year depending on the amount of work there is on Maui. That may seem like a lot of money, and the NYT graphic ranks that in the 91st percentile and top fifth of Americans in the United States, but that is barely enough to support seven kids living in Hawai’i. Granted, my family was not struggling to stay afloat my whole life, but I do remember the times where we had to cut down on grocery shopping until the EBT stamps came in or until my dad’s next paycheck went through. There were times where I admired my dad for his hard work and dedication to our family when he would work 70-hour weeks to help get us by. This is the type of thing that helped my family afford things that we needed (whether it be food, clothes, supplies, etc.) while being in the middle
Based off the graphic, my dad is considered part of the 59th percentile while taking his occupation, education, income, and wealth into consideration. My dad is an electrician and was the only one working in my household for most of my life, as my mom was a homemaker and babysitter for about 10 years until she started working for Delta airlines in 2014. Electricians are ranked as 135 out of 447 jobs for prestige, according to the NYT graphic, and are also thought of as a middle class job. Aside from that, a key element to know is that I am from Hawai’i where the cost of living is awfully expensive. On average, my dad’s income is around $90,000 a year depending on the amount of work there is on Maui. That may seem like a lot of money, and the NYT graphic ranks that in the 91st percentile and top fifth of Americans in the United States, but that is barely enough to support seven kids living in Hawai’i. Granted, my family was not struggling to stay afloat my whole life, but I do remember the times where we had to cut down on grocery shopping until the EBT stamps came in or until my dad’s next paycheck went through. There were times where I admired my dad for his hard work and dedication to our family when he would work 70-hour weeks to help get us by. This is the type of thing that helped my family afford things that we needed (whether it be food, clothes, supplies, etc.) while being in the middle