RA:#2 pg. 307-329/25/07

I found the reading to be quite interesting, since the author started this article off by saying that most Americans do not like using the word “class,” to describe how each class describes them and how they describe each class. I think that Mantsios, did this to indicate that there are no set classes in our society today. Is this because our nation consists of mainly middle class citizens? I think it is, and I say this because people who are born into our nation are generally born into a “wellborn,” society.
I also like how Mantsios states that most of our lower class would be considered wealthy in other countries. I think that this is true, because we as a society are more developed than other societies. Our society is not made up of rich people and poor people, and the wealthy are not exploiting the poor, sine they are similar in the way they live, since most of our upper class is considered middle class. I find this very interesting since we assume that our lower class is so poor, while they are still able to survive and live a fairly normal lifestyle than that of other people in poverty. So do classes of society really exist? I think that we are made to think that they do not, but the inevitable truth is that they always will exist, no matter how large or small each class is.
Are we brought up to think that there are no specific classes? I think we are. So, therefore the rich are not exploiting the poor, since they don’t even think that there is hardly a lower class. This is very interesting since we usually are spoon-fed the belief that there are no specific classes, which is why we believe that there are no set classes.
When politicians and commentators denies exploitation, and makes it out to be something that naturally happens. They say that we are socially diverse, but we cannot be diverse if there are no classes that we will indicate. This makes me think that the author is trying to say that the upper class tries not to step on the toes of the poor, but cannot avoid doing so, since they will always be seen as rich, when in fact that upper class of society has more power. Meanwhile we do not have that large of an upper class.
My position is in the middle class, makes me a majority, which gives me an advantage to the poor, and people of other races. But, I am also a woman, and therefore I am a minority among men. This brings me to the conclusion in which our class is mostly determined by our race, not our gender, which is why there is simultaneous discrimination. We cannot escape discrimination no matter what we do; it will always exist, even if we say it does not.
I think that this question can go tow ways, but have the same outcome. If a person takes the question as saying that the rich ignore the poor, and that that we can also take this question as the rich making the poor out to be very bad. In my personal opinion, I think that the rich ignoe the poor, which makes this a bigger issue, which is the main argument the author is trying to get across, but it can be taken both ways.