NYT: "Class in America: Shadowy Lines That Still Divide"

[El Pinko]

http://tinyurl.com/4a4jlm

Class in America: Shadowy Lines That Still Divide

By JANNY SCOTT AND DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: May 15, 2005

There was a time when Americans thought they understood class. The upper crust vacationed in Europe and worshiped an Episcopal God. The middle class drove Ford Fairlanes, settled the San Fernando Valley and enlisted as company men. The working class belonged to the A.F.L.-C.I.O., voted Democratic and did not take cruises to the Caribbean. Today, the country has gone a long way toward an appearance of classlessness. Americans of all sorts are awash in luxuries that would have dazzled their grandparents. Social diversity has erased many of the old markers. It has become harder to read people's status in the clothes they wear, the cars they drive, the votes they cast, the god they worship, the color of their skin. The contours of class have blurred; some say they have disappeared.

But class is still a powerful force in American life. Over the past three decades, it has come to play a greater, not lesser, role in important ways. At a time when education matters more than ever, success in school remains linked tightly to class. At a time when the country is increasingly integrated racially, the rich are isolating themselves more and more. At a time of extraordinary advances in medicine, class differences in health and lifespan are wide and appear to be widening.

....

Even as mobility seems to have stagnated, the ranks of the elite are opening. Today, anyone may have a shot at becoming a United States Supreme Court justice or a C.E.O., and there are more and more self-made billionaires. Only 37 members of last year's Forbes 400, a list of the richest Americans, inherited their wealth, down from almost 200 in the mid-1980's.

So it appears that while it is easier for a few high achievers to scale the summits of wealth, for many others it has become harder to move up from one economic class to another. Americans are arguably more likely than they were 30 years ago to end up in the class into which they were born. A paradox lies at the heart of this new American meritocracy. Merit has replaced the old system of inherited privilege, in which parents to the manner born handed down the manor to their children. But merit, it turns out, is at least partly class-based. Parents with money, education and connections cultivate in their children the habits that the meritocracy rewards. When their children then succeed, their success is seen as earned.

[El Pinko]

1. kick.

Doggone it.

[elizfeelinggreat]

2. yep

"Parents with money, education and connections cultivate in their children the habits that the meritocracy rewards. When their children then succeed, their success is seen as earned."



Born on third base ...

[Javaman]

3. Unless you are moron* who was born striking out but was still allowed

to run the bases for a homerun.

[El Pinko]

4. To put it more accurately...

"Parents with money, education and connections can afford the education and time required to cultivate in their children the habits that the meritocracy rewards. When their children then succeed, their success is seen as earned."

Even something as subtle as one's dialect makes a huge difference in the job market - not to mention social connections to the right people, legacy admissions to the right universities, etc. etc.

[Romulox]

6. Um, dialect? George W. Bush? Did he "merit" entry into Skull and Bones?

Not what you know. Who you know. QED

[elizfeelinggreat]

14. I understand what you're saying

but

I've seen clips posted here of W when he was so well spoken you almost wouldn't believe it was the same person. If he couldn't/didn't switch that dialect on and off he almost certainly wouldn't be where he is today.

[Romulox]

5. The vast majority of the upper classes in America inherit their wealth

The NYT claim about the Forbes 400 only obfuscates this reality (hint: the majority of the upper class are not on the Forbes 400 list.) I'm not surprised, as the NYT is a great defender of right-wing economics and "third way" policies regarding trade, etc.

"Merit has replaced the old system of inherited privilege, in which parents to the manner born handed down the manor to their children. But merit, it turns out, is at least partly class-based. Parents with money, education and connections cultivate in their children the habits that the meritocracy rewards. When their children then succeed, their success is seen as earned."

Wretch inducing crap. "Merit" in our society = credentializing, not skill.

[JDPriestly]

7. My dad was from an extremely poor family, but managed

to get a good education. His grandchildren are doing very well, but it took several generations.

The key for him and for my mother was intellectual curiosity, willingness to learn and education.

The problem today is that a lot of kids like him from poor families are indoctrinated at an early age to fear and despise intellectuals. That is what the whole creationism, anti-science movement is about. The view is that if it isn't in the Bible, it isn't true. This holds many talented young people back.

This all began with the Nixon administration's reaction to the Viet Nam War opposition: de-fund liberal arts education,
starve the meddling, opinionated professors, and
fund business administration.

We see where Nixon's strategy has taken us: Not only are Americans graduating from colleges and universities with appallingly deficient knowledge of the world around them, lacking any understanding of the culture and history that made our nation rise to leadership in the world, but
American businesses have fallen behind under the leadership of men and women who cannot see beyond the next quarter's gains and losses on a balance sheet.

What a tragedy.

[Romulox]

9. Here comes "the poor deserve their lot" cant...

Americans are more educated today than ever before in our history and yet wages have been stagnant for 30 years, and class mobility has ground to a halt.

Neoliberal economics. Not. Workers'. Fault.

[JDPriestly]

13. My father never made a lot of money, but he taught his

children the knowledge and skills that they passed on to his grandchildren -- those knowledge and skills that cause a person to rise economically and socially by enabling a person to be wise, to have good values and to make good decisions.

In terms of years spent in school and degrees earned we may be "more educated," but those years and degrees do not equal the years and degrees spent in school 70 years ago. That is because many of the years we spend in school and many of the degrees we get are actually vocational training that was previously learned on the job or in a family trade or business. The number of people with real education, knowledge of the world, of languages, of literature, of music, of art, of history, of human culture, i.e., a liberal arts education has not increased by much measured in proportion to the increase in the population of our country.

And it is the wide dissemination of this knowledge of culture, of liberal arts, that enables people to become truly prosperous -- not necessarily to have more money as individuals, but to become more prosperous in the true sense and to rise economically as a result. That is why countries like Norway, Sweden, Finland, etc., although having fewer natural resources than we do in some respects, but in which those who acquire advanced degrees have what we call a "well-rounded" education are in fact more prosperous than we are. They have created a lifestyle that makes more sense for the individual and the group than ours does. They are better able to see the big picture and to understand the kind of societal organization that they need in order for their personal interests as well as those of others to be met. It is a matter of values. A truly good education that widens the student's perspective on the world and on life creates real wealth because it enables people to adopt sensible values and exercise good judgment not only about their personal lives but about the direction that society should take.

My point is that Nixon nixed liberal arts education. He was just the beginning. Reagan and the sequence of Republican presidents, of course, are completing the destruction or our education system. Most Americans now believe that subjects like music, art, literature and history are entertainment, not necessary to the education of ordinary children. It is not the lack of money that has impoverished our country. Our country has become poor because of a lack of values and of cultural direction. Because Americans do not understand arts, literature and culture, they have become consumers of whatever junk is pushed on them.

A few days before Valentine's Day, I saw a grocery store display of this year's Valentines. I could not believe how ugly they were. Every single one depicted cartoon-like characters from TV shows. Many of the characters were action figures. The drawings were crude. The colors were garish. At that moment, I realized just how much children today lack any sense of aesthetics. It isn't just a matter of taste. Tastes can vary. But these cards were just cheap productions. The cards I had as a child were created to be saved and cherished. The cards I saw in the store this Valentine's Day were intended to be sold and bought and thrown away. I would never have bought such ugly cards for my children, and they would not have wanted them. That's the difference that real education, real values make. So, Americans are poor because they are not educated to appreciate the real beauty of life. They are only educated to consume. And today many Americans are in debt for all kinds of consumer goods they don't need -- stuff sold to them on TV -- stuff they buy because they don't know any better.

[blindpig]

17. You need to dig a little deeper

The reason that arts and culture have wretched standards is because they have been commodified, have become common grist for the capitalist mill. This is the usual result of capitalism, overproduction and increasingly poor quality, it is capitalism's inevitable logic. Your and 99% of Americans beef is with capitalism.

[JCMach1]

16. You hit the nail on the head... I was VERY educated, but really didn't start making money

until I got out of the American system...

[leftofthedial]

8. the class war is the ONLY real issue

all the others are symptoms

[El Pinko]

10. Thank you. But so many here don't see it that way.

Unfortunately, no progressive movement has ever succeeded without the bourgeouisie on board, so I guess we need the latte libs...

[blindpig]

12. Naw

As long as they insist on confusing culture with politics they are worse than useless, they drag the political movement to a screeching halt. That's the situation we find ourselves in today. If they insist upon their upper class pretensions(there is no class )then they should be left in the dust, there is no time. The working class is big enough to get the job done if it has solidarity.

[elizfeelinggreat]

19. Many in the working class don't realize they are - working class

One of the wonders of our time is the illusion that the middle/working class has of being within striking distance of the truly wealthy. Ha.

It causes delirious choices in the voting booth.


(I know many in the middle class are wealthy compared to those who are suffering, that's not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to the way the media confuses people into voting against their own interests and fosters greed.)

[blindpig]

20. well, yeah

And not just the media, the schools, the government, it could be argued organized religion, all have been complict, getting on 60 years now. The New Deal scared the shit out of the rich, even though it's effcts were minimal compared to a full blown socialist agenda. The bastards won't give an inch before they try to take it back, something to remember.

Next time, no half measures.

[El Pinko]

23. "I got a HELOC and bought an escalade and a "yacht" (boat) I'm practically rich!"

...So says Foreclosure Poster Boy of 2009...

[JDPriestly]

21. There is class. Discouraging working people from having knowledge of their

own culture and of the culture of others, of the value of their own experience and how it differs from the experience of others is how working people are dragged down. They are blinded into accepting the lie that they are not worth more than they are getting.

Where is today's equivalent of Pete Seeger? The protests by the dock workers on the West Coast are a rare show of solidarity with others by workers in the U.S. In a number of other countries, that kind of demonstration is more frequent.

Traveling on the light rail and subways, I hear street rappers. Some of them are very talented. Yesterday, I passed a couple of young men on a sidewalk in downtown LA who were listening to rap music. One of them was actually moving his feet and dancing a bit. When he saw me (an old lady dressed in a suit) he looked embarrassed and stopped dancing. Why? He was dancing very well. I liked what he was doing. He did not stop because I frowned. In fact, I smiled. I think he stopped because he has been taught that culture, his own and that of others, is unimportant, that dancing on the sidewalk is a waste of time and something to be ashamed of. I totally disagree. Culture is what life is about. Music, dance, art, literature. People are poor and feel poor when they consume culture out of a a cereal box every day of their lives. They do not know their own culture or the cultures of others. There is no labor movement in the U.S. because there is no culture of labor. In general, Americans do not know that humanism is about struggle on a personal and societal basis, about protest, about the culture of ordinary people. The only live cultural expression that most Americans know is what happens in their church on Sunday morning. That is pretty limited.

Many years ago I was teaching music to a little boy (not in the US). I mentioned the fact that he was, for the first time, playing a piece by Beethoven and how wonderful that was. I reminded him that Beethoven had lived in a community near his home. I told him that Beethoven was one of the greatest composers of all time. He looked at me with big eyes and said: "And was he very, very rich?" \

He was just a little boy. But, I bet that millions of Americans would ask the same question about the great artists and composers of the world. Were they rich? If not, why value their work? After all, if your work doesn't make you a lot of money, it's not worht much, is it? This attitude betrays a lack of a sense of culture. It reflects the belief that one's own culture is of little value in and of itself. That is what makes people truly poor.

Wealthy people become wealthy because they create the belief that they are better than other people, that they are smarter, wiser than other people, and that they therefore deserve better than other people. That is a lie. But the only way to debunk that lie is to educate people about literature, arts, music, life in general, not just computer technology or accounting or nursing. To rise up, a person must have a sense of his or her own worth, and the best way to get that is through a liberal arts education. It isn't a matter of degrees or years spent in school. It is a matter of exploring life beyond the TV and the consumer magazines. That is what enables people to improve their lives and that is what creates real wealth. Consumerism is the enemy of true wealth.

[blindpig]

24. While I cannot help but agree about the importance of culture

I think you've got it a little backwards. The rich have culture because they have an abundance of leisure time. They have this abundance of leisure because they own the means of production and subsist on the labor of others. For the rest of us the cheezy but oh so profitable confections will do. The logic of capitalism, derived from mass production, allows only for the lowest common denominator What a deal, we pay for our own neutering and the richer get richer to boot.

Compare the emphasis on culture which has been a major goal of the Cuban revolution. The paucity of culture in our society is a direct result of our economic system.

[JCMach1]

18. Not class War: Class Surrender

The working class gave up the struggle after the New Deal. They declared victory, folded their tent, and rested on their laurels.

You are right, it's the only issue that truly matters.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. News Flash No. 1: The U.S. Has Class Distinctions

News Flash No. 2: The U.S. Is North of Mexico and South of Canada

[JCMach1]

15. Merit my ass!

The class system in the U.S. has moved backwards during my lifetime. We are back to about 1909 at the moment. :(

[KillCapitalism]

22. I agree.

You know there's something wrong with this system when you have people with college/advanced degrees working retail, or waiting tables, etc.