The State of America's Middle Class
America's Incredible Shrinking Middle Class
Study Questions: 76-150
One. What do super rich people look for in a house?
A long driveway and a driveway that cannot even be found is the ideal. You can set your GPS to the address of a rich person’s mansion, arrive at the mailbox and the front security gate, and then have to drive a few miles before you get to the actual front door of the mansion.
The rich want isolation, and isolation kills empathy from the rest of the human race.
Two. What is the relationship between television at mealtimes and social class?
The lower the class the higher the dependence on television to replace conversation at mealtimes.
According to Fussell, the more conspicuous the TV the lower the class. His book is outdated. In the age of flat-screen TVs, the rich are getting huge high-end television sets as part of their “entertainment rooms.”
We could say Fussell’s book is dated here. Since this book was written in the 1980s, the television has been replaced by the smartphone.
Three. What do the rich look for in a bathroom?
In a word, SIZE. The bigger the bathroom, the better. Bathroom size today is the result of market research, which has shown that people associate the bathroom with childhood and shame. As people grow up, the bathroom should represent independence from adults and their shaming ways. A big bathroom means you’re an adult who can enjoy privacy without shame.
This principle has been applied to all the finest hotels.
Four. How has consumerism changed since Fussell wrote his book in the 1980s?
The middle class has shrunk. Now when journalists and politicians refer to America, only two classes are mentioned: The 1% and “average Americans.” See the above links.
Five. What is the role of college and class?
According to Fussell, Americans lack “a system of hereditary ranks and titles,” but they want to be snobs just like people in other countries, so they rely on “their college and university hierarchy.”
According to Forbes, 40% of Americans have an associate’s degree or above. About 30% of Americans have a bachelor’s degree or above.
Six. Is college about status today or survival?
Perhaps college was a status symbol three decades ago or so, but today it is more about survival than anything.
See the income gap in this US News report.
We can see the employment gap in Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"America: Abandon Your Reverence for the Bachelor's Degree"
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