Will The Middle Class survive in the United States Term Paper

Will The Middle Class survive in the United States - Term Paper Example Alternatively, a counterargument is presented to the effect that the middle class does not exist. The most important rhetoric of the modern society is perhaps based on the financial integrity and performance and the interplay with benefits and liabilities presented to individuals’ financial abilities. While social stratification may not be a welcome idea in the modern society, economic potential unfortunately creates an imprint of social classes dependent primarily on the economic status of individuals. Among the five presumed socioeconomic classes is the middle class which can be defined as the class comprising of between one-third to a fifth of employees in an economy and has white-collar employees, junior managers, small and middle entrepreneurs. In the apparent social stratification and classification, there are two lower classes ranking below the middle class and two classes higher in ranking than the middle class. From the table above, Weston (2011) tries to illustrate the definition of the various socioeconomic classes based on the range of earnings that they make and the position of the middle class has been highlighted in bold. Below and above this class, there are two socioeconomic classes with a possibility to move up and down the classes being dependent on the performance on earnings and individuals’ financial status. Depending on the general performance of the national economy, the distribution of the classes across the population may depict certain patterns. As an illustration, in the developed economies, the population in the advanced classes is higher than in the lower classes, which is the exact opposite in developing economies. Equally, the possibility of movement up and down the classes is reminiscent of the prevailing economic environment. It therefore implies that the middle class is composed or relatively better