The Inequality Breakdown Summary

Although the article, The Inequality Hype, questions many aspects of both poverty and inequality, I was most interested on what it stated about the middle class. Feeling identified with the middle class, it seems to me that its condition is worsening, so the contradictory question, “But with household incomes increasing amid rising inequality, what do the facts tell us about the real material state of the middle class?” drew me in (Gilbert). I have always felt that the middle class and success are difficult to define since they are broad categories that we enjoy putting people into. I thought it was interesting when the article brought this into discussion by saying, “The historical absence of an aristocracy has bred a fluid sense of social class and a democratic ethos that instills a degree of reluctance in Americans to identify as “upper class.” Thus, the middle class is a well-regarded, if ill-defined, status to which most Americans subscribe” (Gilbert). …show more content…
While this may be true, I highly doubt that my parents would classify themselves in this category. I believe that the cause of this lack of confidence in middle class families comes from the terrible condition of the economy and debt we are in, which makes everyone, even wealthier families, to doubt their assets. This confusion continues in the media, which is shown by The New York Times and Pew Research center having such drastically different reports on the middle class. All in all I think that it is difficult to distinguish who is in the middle class because people will have different definitions depending on their own personal financial situations. The one thing that “middle class” families can agree on, however, is that even if the data seems to be more promising, the current economic status has hurt all ends of the