Isn’t middle simply confusing?
Are we not working folks and wealthy-ruling folks that generate wealth via assets?
Edit: thank you all who’ve helped me gain a better understand of the concept from many different angles
In: 0
“Middle class” originally referred to the people who didn’t have generational wealth, titles, etc. but whom worked professions or owned businesses that provided them enough money to move in the circles of those who did. They were new money that had enough to send their kids to good schools, buy fine clothes, etc. but not enough to be the idle rich like so many of the upper class, and at the end of the day they still had to work to maintain it.
Without the more defined social hierarchy of Europe to reinforce class awareness, American politicians in the 20th century convinced voters that they were not, in fact, the lower “working” class, but a new “middle” class all benefitting from the wealth of their great nation generated through personal responsibility and a bunch of other malarky. The “working” class became more commonly referred to as the “lower” class to give those people someone to look down on and fear would come to take what was rightfully theirs.
Latest Answers