America and The "Middle Class"

Recently in class we have been discussing the topic of class and classism. I came across an article a few days ago in The Atlantic entitled "What Does 'Middle Class' Even Mean?" written by Gillian B. White. It talks about class perception and how people choose to identify to one particular class. We discussed in class how it is the American way to identify as Middle Class, but what does that term really mean? Some would argue it is the middle 50% of Americans (their income is more than the bottom 25% and less than the top 25%). In 2013, the Survey of Consumer Finances stated that these are families with incomes "between $24,000 to $90,000." But if you take into account other factors besides solely income, like property or "liabilities," this same "middle class" expands to an enormous spectrum. This would mean the middle class would have "anywhere between $9,000 to $317,000." Families within this range would lead entirely different lives.

So maybe class is not about dividing up people based on income. Class can be "as much about perception and comparison as it is about measurable metrics, like money" (White). It's not just a socioeconomic matter, it's a way of life. Class does not just mean money, it's largely about self-perception and comparing yourself to those around you. In class, we were asked to try to place ourselves into one class category. The fact that we live in a very wealthy area definitely had an impact on people’s own perceptions of their class. A similar survey has been going on at a national level: Gallup began collecting data in 2000, inquiring what class people identified as. Here are the results:

Michael Kraus, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Illinois gives an explanation of this graph. We are facing a growing gap between the rich and the poor, and this inequality often results in a tendency for people to compare themselves to one another even more. So, while someone may actually be closer to middle class income-wise, they identify as lower because of this enormous gap between the rich and poor. More and more people are perceiving themselves as "falling out of middle class." This is a problem for America because it affects people's view of social mobility. They have less hope that they can move up classes.

We see this theme of social mobility throughout The Great Gatsby, as well. The "American Dream" narrative arc is one that is at the core of our country, which is why Gatsby is so fascinating to us. We find out his parents were actually poor farm people and "his imagination had never really accepted them as his parents at all" (Fitzgerald 98). He chose to not "accept" this class he was born into; he rejected it entirely. He created a new persona he aspired to become and "to this conception he was faithful to the end" (98). He did all that he could to achieve his dream, the American Dream, and ended up succeeding, moving from lower, to middle, to upper class.