Socioeconomic Status. Question about the campaign trail and the "lower class"

[rjx]

This has been on my mind for a LONG time. Why do the candidates only talk about the middle class? Why don't we ever hear anything about the lower class?

I have looked at the charts. I see how the classes are divided. But we never hear about the lower class.

It is my conclusion that when we hear about the middles class, the lower class is included. Am I right or wrong? I was thinking perhaps the candidates don't want to demoralize groups of people by referring to them as "lower class."

Or is it because the lower class represents a smaller population of people than the middle class?



Thanks.

[OKNancy]

1. I think it's because the working class

or lower class, if you will, think of themselves as middle class.
EVERYONE thinks they are middle class except for the very wealthy.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. I got no proof for this at all, but I imagine that

"lower class" is a pejorative, and besides, the politicians fear that when people hear the term, they'll think "Welfare." The Republicans have spent decades convincing people that the Democrats are trying to give everything away to undeserving, slothful and degenerate drones, mostly minorities, who have well earned their ignominious place at the bottom of the social order.

[LSparkle]

3. Thanks to Raygun and his "welfare queens" meme ...

it became OK in the '80s to see poverty as a sin, something of
a person's own making as opposed to being denied opportunities
or just sheer bad luck. I was encouraged when John Edwards
talked about eradicating poverty during his campaign -- skipping
"lower class" and going right after the problem of there actually
being POOR people in this country -- but that discussion has
largely been ignored recently in favor of focusing on the
"middle class."

I don't think of "working class" as such a negative term,
considering that even doctors and lawyers are technically
"workers" too ... In fact, I think that distinction is a good
one, because it differentiates between those who don't HAVE
to work (trust fund babies, et al.) versus those who DO
HAVE to work (even if they do so at a level that pays them
well).

[rjx]

5. Quote

"eradicating poverty during his campaign -- skipping "lower class" and going right after the problem of there actually being POOR people in this country"

Has Obama mentioned anything about this? Or other Democratic leaders?

[rjx]

4. Thank you for the replies

You all have expanded my perspective on this issue.

[applegrove]

6. I think it is because you want the middle class to grow if you are a democrat. So you concentrate on

it. The poor (which is what they are called, not the "lower class") you don't want to grow you want them to make it into the middle class.

[anonymous171]

7. Because people don't tend not to self-classify as "lower class" even if they are.

[JustAnotherGen]

8. I 'hear' you

One of the things that appealed to me about John Edwards? His appeal to America to consider those who live in poverty.

I volunteer regularly at a foodbank here in NJ. It's bad. It's really bad. I never go empty handed either. I go to Wegmans and fill up my cloth bags with milk, pasta, sauce, and cheese. Solid staples. They fly off the shelves.

The reality is - that I *Think* that America as a whole doesn't want to acknowledge that we have a serious problem. Go down to Camden NJ and you'll see it in stark living color. Or - go up to the Adirondacks - get off the beaten path of those beautiful ski resort towns - and you'll see poverty that one can't comprehend.

I have a good friend who is an attorney with Chase Manhattan. He busted his ass in spite of the inequality in education he received in grade, middle and highschool. He begged, borrow, and stole to get through University and Law School. No one should begrudge C.W. for his success, affluence, or what he does. Know why? He grew up in Watertown NY in a home that a lot of times in the winter? Didn't have heat. To this day - and he's 37 years old . . . he doesn't have a bed frame or head/footboard. Know why? He never had anything other than a mattress growing up. Yeah - he's upgraded to a boxspring but still: He never wants to forget where he came from.

Now he sees it too - and does a LOT of volunteer work as well as giving a great deal to those who are just, well, lost in America. Here is this white male, 30 something yuppie attorney from the 'back woods' near an Army Base that should be a Republican - but he was on that Edwards band wagon with me. My greatest fear . . . my absolute greatest fear - is that with this economy and more of those so-called 'lower classes' falling into poverty - that a lot of children are going to go to bed with empty stomaches in cold houses in the dead of winter.

This is not my America. This isn't an America I want to live in.

[spooky3]

11. you and your friend are admirable

Unfortunately, I think you are right on every point.

I think also that people in the working and middle classes are struggling to maintain their lifestyles and it is hard for them to see a lot of "extra" in their time & money budgets for people less fortunate. In past times, singles and families could live fairly comfortably on one male union income (there was never a time when single women could live comfortably (e.g., pay for a middle class house, car, etc.) on a female dominated job salary, let alone if they had kids). Health care costs didn't eat up such a huge chunk of employer and employee resources. This allowed time and a bit of money to give to others. As real incomes have fallen and both heads of households hold down full-time jobs (or more) people may have become more self-focused. Even jobs that once provided relative luxury have dropped in real salary terms, so that the gap between the highest classes and everyone else is now huge. This is all at a time when productivity has been rising consistently every year, but no longer is its largesse shared with many of the people who make that possible.

[spooky3]

9. because when John Edwards talked about the lower class

he couldn't attract enough votes to get the nomination. I realize that he later revealed other problems, but those problems were not the reason why he wasn't the favorite.

The lower class doesn't have lobbyists and doesn't vote in the same % as other groups. And politicians are very aware of this.

It is a shame.

[JustAnotherGen]

10. Amen spooky3

The lower class doesn't have lobbyists and doesn't vote in the same % as other groups. And politicians are very aware of this.

It is a shame.