The rich and the poor
I was watching Oprah today, as I do most days, and what she spoke about actually got me thinking about some things, maybe even pushed me to do more? Anyways, she spoke about the rich and the poor of America. How you have the elite of whom make up just 1% of the country's class sections yet holds 40% of the country's wealth (something like that, don't quote me). Then there's a bunch of other stats I could give you, but I won't, because numbers don't mean much to me on this type of subject. Here's a few of the things that got me about this matter...
- Guests on the Oprah show talked about they classify people according to how they look without bothering getting to know them. For example, if you are overweight, have bad teeth, and aren't dressed very fashionably it is assumed you are of the lower class. Okay, it makes sense, but isn't there more to that person than their class? What about how hard they work? I'm betting a lot of the lower class work their bums off (harder than those rich kids playing golf every friday). Like one family, where their was a mom, dad, and 2 young boys. He worked two jobs, they went to public school, and she can't get a job because then all her money would simply go to daycare. They're decent people, just not rich. They work hard too.
- This man who's a family member of the heirs to the Johnson and Johnson company has made a film called "The One Percent" (based upon the elite percent of people). I respect him for questioning his money, why they are rich, and looking at the lower classes as human beings as well. When it all comes down to it we are human beings each coming from different backgrounds which I believe ultimately decide how we will live when we are older. Why is it taboo to make conversation of wages, when we all make it too obvious that we will not make ourselves comfortable with a lower class, and not permit ourselves to be put down by the upper?
- What is middle class? I'm very confused by this. My neighborhood has a golf course, elementary school, lake, and good neighbors. The house I live in has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 living rooms, a kitchen, office, laundry room, storage. Am I middle class? Am I lower class? Am I lower middle class? Upper middle class? Why do we even have all these stinking labels!?! Does my label affect the other labels I associate with? Do the other labels associate with affect the value of my label? What the heck am I talking about?
Who knows where I am going with this. I believe I am so blessed to have grown up where I have, had the opportunities which I've had, and lived in the house I live in. If we're counting blessings I consider myself quite rich. See, I was sitting there watching this show and thought, I am living very comfortably. How can people who have so many piles of money just sitting there not give a thought to it? Not that I'm saying we all need to go live in mud huts and eat racoons. We deserve what we make according to how hard we work. Don't you think though that those of us who have gained more than others should give those others a step up?
The point of Oprah today, I believe, was to bring home the point that the poor are getting poorer, the rich getting richer, and the middle class struggling for which end they will fall to. Everybody seemed so surprised by this, but take a look at Africa and there is no middle class. There's the rich and the poor. So where did they go wrong with that? Could America perhaps take a lesson from Zambia's mistakes?
Not sure what I think about any of this, I just know it bothers me that some people have to live so poorly, and others in such disgusting unneeded wealth. What do you think about the "disappearing middle class?"
- Guests on the Oprah show talked about they classify people according to how they look without bothering getting to know them. For example, if you are overweight, have bad teeth, and aren't dressed very fashionably it is assumed you are of the lower class. Okay, it makes sense, but isn't there more to that person than their class? What about how hard they work? I'm betting a lot of the lower class work their bums off (harder than those rich kids playing golf every friday). Like one family, where their was a mom, dad, and 2 young boys. He worked two jobs, they went to public school, and she can't get a job because then all her money would simply go to daycare. They're decent people, just not rich. They work hard too.
- This man who's a family member of the heirs to the Johnson and Johnson company has made a film called "The One Percent" (based upon the elite percent of people). I respect him for questioning his money, why they are rich, and looking at the lower classes as human beings as well. When it all comes down to it we are human beings each coming from different backgrounds which I believe ultimately decide how we will live when we are older. Why is it taboo to make conversation of wages, when we all make it too obvious that we will not make ourselves comfortable with a lower class, and not permit ourselves to be put down by the upper?
- What is middle class? I'm very confused by this. My neighborhood has a golf course, elementary school, lake, and good neighbors. The house I live in has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 living rooms, a kitchen, office, laundry room, storage. Am I middle class? Am I lower class? Am I lower middle class? Upper middle class? Why do we even have all these stinking labels!?! Does my label affect the other labels I associate with? Do the other labels associate with affect the value of my label? What the heck am I talking about?
Who knows where I am going with this. I believe I am so blessed to have grown up where I have, had the opportunities which I've had, and lived in the house I live in. If we're counting blessings I consider myself quite rich. See, I was sitting there watching this show and thought, I am living very comfortably. How can people who have so many piles of money just sitting there not give a thought to it? Not that I'm saying we all need to go live in mud huts and eat racoons. We deserve what we make according to how hard we work. Don't you think though that those of us who have gained more than others should give those others a step up?
The point of Oprah today, I believe, was to bring home the point that the poor are getting poorer, the rich getting richer, and the middle class struggling for which end they will fall to. Everybody seemed so surprised by this, but take a look at Africa and there is no middle class. There's the rich and the poor. So where did they go wrong with that? Could America perhaps take a lesson from Zambia's mistakes?
Not sure what I think about any of this, I just know it bothers me that some people have to live so poorly, and others in such disgusting unneeded wealth. What do you think about the "disappearing middle class?"
posted by Lauren at 6:12 PM
5 Comments:
That's something I've thought about a lot too. It's very extreme in countries like Brazil, where a small percent of the population hold something like 80% of the wealth. So a few million people get to spend their free time on the beach in their plastic-perfect bodies, while a few hundred million people have to kill and steal to eat.
In China I think there are about 200 million people considered well-off by anyone's standards (often fabulously wealthy in fact), and then the other 800 million are poor farmers...communism? where did it go??
Btw, I believe you and I would probably be tagged as upper-middle class. We're not filthy stinking rich, but we're not "just getting by" either. Meh, who knows.
What if there is no middle class? What if we who don't think we are that rich are actually up there with the billions of dollar holders? We could be missing the scale. If we considered ourselves upper class then, what would we do? Would we act differently?
If we wanted to, how would we help the lower class?
By the by, I dont know if I know what the sort of things would entertain one such as you. You might just up with something I thought was amazing.
my first thought was this... why the heck is opra winfrey talking about this "dissapearing middle class" when she is one of the wealthiest friggin people on television today? if anything she is the biggest part of the problem. start preaching to yourself opra.
then again, it's always hard to blame the poor that they are poor, and always so easy to blame the rich that the poor are poor. what does that make true?
compared to many african countries, the "poor" in Canada are rich.
Dutch cows make more money than millions because they are subsidized by the government to the tune of $3 a day. Meanwhile, millions live on less than $1 per day.
I don't think the problem lies with being poor or having poor people, but what is wrong is when we spend so much on ourselves, and let the poor stay poor.
nevermind oprah man, it's all about dr phil!
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