Essay

            The ideas of community and citizenship were the building blocks in the creation of the United States, but seem long forgotten in regards to present times. Community is the idea of seeing all human beings as equals, taking part in assuring the equal treatment of all, and including those less fortunate than ourselves. Although, in the America I have grown up in, it is a challenge to find these qualities in others. The “every man for himself” mentality has swept the nation, and in doing so has undermined community and citizenship, which were once the foundation of this country. Instead of being there for one another, individuals have thrown away all morals and respect to get ahead. In this unsettling present, some rich businessmen disregard all ideas of community, and are destroying the economic stability of this country, thus causing the steady evaporation of the middle class. These rich businessmen accumulate all this money, and then simply hoard it. In doing so, the money is not circulated through the economy and causes the middle class’ stability to drop. As the rich are getting ahead, the rest of the nation is falling behind, thus creating the beginning of the end for the middle class. Someday not too far from now, there will not be a middle class if we do not create change. We must work together to end this adversity before it brings about the end of American society as we know it.

            The majority population of America belongs to the working middle class. They are thought to be ordinary citizens, yet they are the heart of our economy, politics, education, and every other aspect of American society. As Robert Reich explained in the film Inequality for All (Dir. Kornbluth), the middle class is what keeps the country running and puts the money in the pockets of the rich. As he stated, the rich need the middle class more than the middle class needs the rich. Without the middle class, we would not be a world superpower as we have been for over a hundred years. The middle class are the ones making products that the wealthy are selling and becoming rich off of. They are also the vast majority of the consumer population buying all these products. Therefore in my opinion, the rich should take this into consideration and pay their workers more money, because with more money the middle class will buy more products, which will supply the rich with more money, and also stimulate the economy.

            I see the evaporation of the middle class as the biggest problem in the United States, because it has an enormous impact on myself and the rest of America. I have been born and raised in a middle class home and community, and other than some crazy stroke of luck winning the lottery, I see myself staying in the middle class. So the fact that the middle class is evaporating is a constant worry as I am proceeding to become an employed citizen. Those in the middle class are falling lower and lower due to the inequality of wealth in the United States. I am concerned that one day this could happen to me, and something needs to be done about this daunting problem in this country.  

            Together, not just as the middle class but as a whole nation, I we must try to overcome the financial inequality in the country. In doing so, the middle class would be revived as well as the nation itself. A monumental step in creating this change can only be achieved by approaching the problem head on. The first major step would be to fix the imbalances in the tax percentage the rich pay of their money compared to that of the class middle. At one point, the rich and the middle class paid an equal percentage of their annual income to taxes. Yet, this changed after Ronald Reagan gave tax breaks to wealthy business owners. As this flaw has continued to show itself throughout the years, the rich pay less and less of their income to taxes while the middle class are forced to make up for these tax breaks. As a community of caring citizens, we must take action and let our government know that these problems are destroying America, and we must stop them before it is too late.

            As a community we can accomplish anything, no matter how insurmountable the obstacles may seem. For example, when the early thirteen colonies of America worked together to drive out the British, they were able to achieve the greatest victory in history, all because of their unity as one. Now, think of how much can be achieved by fifty states and millions of Americans coming together and taking action against an injustice that is plaguing the potential this great country still has. There is no limit to the amount of change that could be brought forth, but first someone has to be brave enough to take the first step. When this brave soul does so, others will follow. This change can be brought forth by the cooperation and teamwork of everyday American citizens. As writer Alice Walker stated in her essay Only Justice Can Stop a Curse found in Paul Loeb’s The Impossible Will Take a Little While, “For we can do nothing substantial toward changing our course on the planet, a destructive one, without rousing ourselves, individual by individual, and bringing our small, imperfect stones to the pile” (qtd. in Loeb 366).  Though Walker is not talking about the injustices in the American economy, I feel that it relates almost perfectly. She acknowledges that we live in a destructive world, and she believes that to create any sort of change, we must work together to bring that change to life.

            As a community, we must also tackle the seemingly impossible task of bringing working class citizens back to the pedestal of American society. As it is at the moment, big business basically runs the government, politics, economy, and virtually every aspect of our society. Corrupt politicians lower the tax rates on the wealthy in hopes that the wealthy will give campaigning money to the politician. These wealthy individuals use this money to bribe the politicians into making decisions that benefit the rich but dismantle the working class and the poor. As a community of citizens, we can work to take big business out of our government and our society entirely. This country was made by the people, for the people; not made by the people, for big business. America has been losing sight of the goals our founding fathers had in mind. A free market economy is somehow more important than the citizens of the country. By taking the rich out of our politics, our government can then focus on invigorating the middle class and make them the centerpiece that they once were. It was the middle class that made the United States a world superpower, therefore it is the middle class that should carry the country on into the future.

            It does not take a leader in charge to bring these changes to our economy, politics, and society. All it takes is one caring citizen to cast the first stone. This is what can be beautiful about the country right now; change is always possible, no matter what the odds are. Anyone can act to correct what they see as unjust. For example, in Soul of a Citizen by Paul Rogat Loeb, the achievements of an everyday citizen are described. Virginia Ramirez was a typical housewife as she described herself, not making even the slightest difference in the world. One day she noticed that an elderly neighbor got sick every winter due to the lack of heating in her house. When Virginia tried to get help, she got no response. The soon death of the neighbor led to Virginia becoming involved in her community and speaking out against various kinds of problems, and eventually speaking to the US Senate. She even went back to school to get her GED and enrolled in a community college. Virginia Ramirez went up against great odds; she was a woman with little prior education, and she believed she would be stuck forever in her role as a housewife. Yet, she overcame her odds to become a leader against injustices impacting her community, as well as any citizen in need of help. As Virginia explained, “I’d begun to think of myself as a person. I’m Virginia Ramirez, not just someone’s wife, mother, or daughter” (Loeb 26). While fighting for justice, Virginia was also able to find herself, and showed how much a community can change the lives of so many people, and not just oneself. I believe it will take an everyday citizen such as Virginia to step up and lead this revolution towards equality for all.

            I would love to be the type of leader who brings about change to the problem of economic inequality, including the evaporation to the middle class. I would raise awareness to Americans that this really is a bigger problem than it may seem, just as Robert Reich did for me. Many citizens may know this is a problem, but simply lack the motivation to do anything about it. Getting others to join in the change to how our economy runs will be the biggest problem. People don’t care until the problem is blatantly at their doorstep. Even though this problem is not obvious to some yet, it soon will be. It has already affected the majority of the middle class as it has begun to deteriorate over the past two decades. In talking to my mother (a divorced middle class mother of two) on the subject, she stated she has realized the middle class has begun to fade away, because she is slowly feeling the pull into the lower economic class. The fact that this is even a possibility is reason for change. When a hardworking American citizen working a good paying job is feeling overwhelmed by financial crisis, there is a problem. Middle class citizens should not be burdened by money and should be able to live a modest lifestyle. Today, some middle class citizens can barely get by because they are burdened with low wages from rich employers and compensating for the tax breaks the rich get, as well as paying their own taxes.

If our economy and society keep going the way they are, the middle class will eventually evaporate and America will only be left with the rich, and the poor. This situation would resemble societies of cultures that were meant to stay in the past. With only the rich and poor, our nation will resemble the American colonies as they were under British rule. Though now, instead of British rule, we are under the equally condescending rule of the wealthy. Personally, I think we as a society are moving backwards, and I regret to say that I am a part of it, since I do nothing to better the situation. Although, I would like to begin to create a change in the economy of America so the rich don’t control every aspect of American society, as well as conserving and improving the middle class.

The middle class is the backbone of the United States, and must be preserved in order to preserve the country itself. The idea of “equality for all” must once again be institutionalized in every aspect of our society, because it has been completely lost. There is no equality when the richest one percent of Americans make more than half of Americans combined. We must appreciate our middle class and give them the respect they have earned as they have built this country from the ground up. We must shift the power in this country from the rich to the majority of citizens, which fall under the middle class. To do this, we as a nation need to revolutionize the way our country is working since it is only working nicely for a select few. Any typical citizen could be the spark to ignite the flame of revolution, all that is needed is the will to try. I believe when people begin to realize the potential of complete evaporation of the middle class, they will step up and seek the equality that our Constitution supposedly grants us. In any nonviolent way necessary, we must reinstall the people of the country as the rulers of their destiny, not a government plagued by the influence of big business. If such a revolution could occur, all but a certain few would benefit. It is time for average Americans to no longer live in the shadows of the rich, but instead be considered as equals with them. We must reestablish that we live in a country by the people, for the people.