The American Caste System

I’ve been thinking of the caste system in the United State of America. Caste system you may ask, isn’t that something they practice in India but certainly not here. No, here in America we talk about economic classes, not castes, but they seem pretty much the same to me.

U.S. News breaks down the economic classes as: 

Low Income – less than $40,100 

Middle Income - $41,000 to 120,400 and

 Upper as more than $120,400.

Looking at data from the Pew Research Center shows that the middle class is shrinking as the lower class is increasing while the highest class is growing.

I could show a whole bunch of charts here about how the poor and getting poorer while the rich are getting richer, but I think most of you know that already.

That is typically what happens in a oligarchy where the rich folk running the government set up a tax structure than benefits the rich and the expense of the poor. And that is exactly what has happened with Ronald Reagan set up “Trickle Down Economics” during his presidency and has been followed every since especially during Republican administrations.

I’ve thought a lot more about this since the pandemic has ravaged the country. Who have been disadvantaged the most during this time? The poorer lower economic classes as usual. Everybody is affected, but the poor lose their jobs the first and have the least resources to withstand a long tern economic downturn. 

I have especially thought about the children during this time. Children are always the most in lower classes. Schooling in in democracy is supposed to be the great equalizer allowing folk access to education so they can improve the economic positions. Yeah right. Have you looked at the cost of higher education in recent years? Higher is right. If I have my math done correctly (which I don’t really trust) the cost of going to school has increased a 100% since I went to school.

With the pandemic home schooling has become normal with aid from the schools providing materials for children, via parents to use over the internet – Zoom education. Now who do you guess have the best computers, internet connections and familiarity with this technology? It’s not the lower classes. And the upper classes can just hire private folk to take up the slack.

I’ve also thought about extracurricular activities/sports during this time as well. Again, sports have been an access point for a few (the emphasis here is on “few”) to get education and jobs due to their athletic prowess. Now days to excel in sports you can’t just go out for school sports to excel, you better go to camps, and join clubs to increase your prowess if you are going to succeed. So that means to economic ascendency if also now tied to economic class.

Now to gaze into our crystal balls and envision the future, is this going to get better or worse. I have very little optimism here. If things keep going the way they are going our class/caste system seems to be headed for the dark ages and feudalism. The Lord and Ladies will have the time to indulge in sports and whatever, but the peasants just better keep their noses to the owners grindstones to survive.

If there is going to be change let’s not blame lower economic folk for wanting a living minimum wage, let’s rekindle democracy by taking power back from the wealthy oligarchs. 

To do that, we will have to get money out of political campaigns so that the wealthy can continue to buy governmental workers not matter what party they are.