Too often in class, an important point that has been stifled before it can be developed is the culpability of the middle class for the woeful state of affairs in which our nation is currently mired. By this I do not mean that working-class Americans should take the brunt of the blame for the egregious wealth disparity that exists in our nation or the recent subprime mortgage crisis that has further driven hard-working individuals into financial ruin. That blame falls primarily on wealthy individuals who give little regard to the human beings their uninhibited wealth-acquisition harms. However, we would be remiss in not recognizing that some of the actors who executed these evils, like Charles Prince (one of the architects of the recent mortgage crisis), are products of the middle class themselves.

While we could immediately dismiss this issue by cataloguing such actors among the American plutocracy, doing so would be an oversimplification of the struggle that exists between the rich and the poor. Perhaps instead we could answer this question by criticizing a capitalist system that equates wealth with merit. Or we could argue that the wealthy have cultivated a mindset among working class Americans that encourages the protection of wealth from the grubby hands of social do-gooders in Washington - even though such a mindset is to the detriment of those working Americans rather than to their benefit. (A question: Would this argument posit that individuals like Prince go from being the puppets to the puppeteers?) These would both be cogent arguments. But they would also make out middle-class America to be a collection of fools who are easily duped by the wealthy or easily indoctrinated by the ideas of Adam Smith. The fact is, many working-class individuals freely believe that they should be able to pursue their own welfare regardless of how it affects others, and it is this mindset that has come back to haunt them.

The middle class has been wholly inept at developing a sense of community among themselves. There is no sense of pursuing a common good. There is no empathy for those who are struggling to make ends meet, even though that struggle may be strikingly familiar. Perhaps this failure to recognize a shared purpose is the result of an Olson-esque collective action problem. Maybe it is simply that the construction worker does not really give a damn about the elementary-school teacher, and vice versa. I cannot speculate as to why middle-class Americans have failed to look beyond their own interests, I simply know that they bear some responsibility for it, because to state otherwise would make them out to be far dumber than what they are.

Mr. Prince may be an oddity given his rise up the social ladder, but his disregard for the welfare of working Americans reflects a mentality that is sadly pervasive in the very environment from which he came, and from which he is now unjustly profiting. If the workers of America are to unite and cast away the chains that bind them to underwater mortgages and low wages, they must first remove the cancer of selfishness that prevents them from doing so. If they fail, the favorite sons that actually make it in America will continue to return as predators, not saviors.

-- TaylorMcGowan - 04 Feb 2010

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