Social Classes in America: Class Matters by Bill Keller - Book Report/Review Example

Matters The book Matters explores the differences in social es in America and how this affects how people live their lives. America is one of the country which is believed to be liberated of aristocracy with even the poorest person is believed to get the chance to change their social status. The book explores the reality of the matter. Is the American dream real or does the social class that one belong to determine their success in life in general. The book is written by a group of New York reporters and investigates how the social class of a person, their income, education, wealth and occupation determine a person’s fate. This article gives the summary of various articles in the book. Chapter 1: Shadowy Lines According to this chapter, America which was one a country divided by class has today become classes. In the past, the upper class as distinct and the members used to take holidays in Europe, buy luxurious cars and live in posh houses. Today, however, with hard work and education, any person is able to rise up and live luxurious. Many people whose parents and grandparents lived in poverty are today able to live good lives. Today, it is harder than before to identify the class of person depending on their dressing, skin color or even occupation. The author of this chapter however argues that despite all these changes, class still remain a major influence in the lives of American (Keller, 2013: 34). The gap between the endowed and the less endowed continue to increase. The rich continue to put themselves apart from the poor. Upward mobility is slower and lesser than it is expected to be. It is however with education for one to become a CEO and there are several self-made achievers. Although education is seen to be a major force in social climbing, most poor people are not able to afford education because it is expensive. The rich can be able to acquire good degrees, have great connections still continue to dominate the high class. People come to America in order to live the American dream (Keller, 2013: 40). However, the so called American dream has become elusive with the poor people continually struggling to get to the top. It seems that although it is possible for a determined person to change social class through education as seen with the few achievers, the mobility of the majority of the poor people from the lower ranks does not happen. Some of the Americans believe that the current system is very fair and confess of living better lives than their parents. However, the majority feel that the rich has more power which gives them an unfair advantage. They feel that there should affirmative action to uplift the lives of the member of the lower class. Chapter 2: Life at the Top in American Isnt Just Better, Its Longer In this chapter, Janny Scott investigates how three different people recovered from a heart attack to show the class differences that is currently being experienced in America. In these cases, class determined the type of treatment that the patients choose, the opportunities they get which has an effect on person longevity. Structural component in terms of being a member of the upper, middle and lower class has an impact on a person’s live in a major way. In these cases, the author illustrates how class affects the treatment of these different cases from the cause, circumstances surrounding the attacks and the treatment. This article shows a clear view on how class influences health care. Today, a large percentage of the Americans cannot afford health insurance. This implies that only the few members of the upper class and a few of the middle class are able to afford health insurance. She observes that the risk for contracting several types of diseases is higher among the people with less education. This is because they are prone to stress more, they smoke and drink more and more likely to taker poor diet of their low incomes. This group of people is also less likely to get emergency treatment because most don’t have health insurance covers. They are also less likely to follow up with life style changes after a heart attack increasing the risk for getting a second attack. They also have limited resources to make huge lifestyle changes. As a result, the medical advances that America has made instead of promoting equality have increased the gap between the rich and the poor (Keller, 42). The rich have access to advanced health care and specialists while the poor lack this opportunity. Chapter 3: When Richer Weds Poorer, Money is not the only difference In this chapter, the author shows the differences that exist between people of different classes by giving an example of a couple that married and one was from the upper class and the other from the lower class. Dan Crouteau had met Cate Wooner six years ago. They realized although they clicked off at different levels, the fact that Mr. Crouteau was from the working class and Ms. Wooner from the upper class created a lot of difficult. For instance, Crouteau came from a humble family. Shifting from the lower social class to upper class was not a family belief. In fact he says that if he suggested to his mother that he wanted to go to college, it would an outrageous thing. His mother expectations on him were to one day get a job at the factory. He viewed the rich as people from another planet. His partner on the other hand came from the other world. She was the daughter of a dancer and a doctor who had money. She had lived a luxurious life, went to good schools and lived a good life. She was however uncomfortable with the inheritance that she got and later used it in charities. Her parents owned two companies and two big houses. She had more money than she needed and she felt uncomfortable because she felt that it was unfair while others had no money (Keller, 2013: 55). The authors shows that people marrying across class move from their comfort zone and this may create problems in the union. People from different classes have different views on food, manner, child-rearing, how to spend vacations and gift giving. She reports that marriages across classes have declined over the years. Chapter 4: Up from the Holler: Living in Two Worlds, at Home in Neither In this chapter, the author shows the difficulties that the people in the lower class face as they try to fit in the middle class. Because of their change in social status, they are also not able to fit in the lower class and end up being outsiders in both worlds. Tamar, the author of this article illustrates this point by giving the example of Ms. Justice. Ms. Justice has been brought up in Pikkeville in a poor home by her mother. She was used to living poor but yearned for a better life (Keller, 2013: 57). When she was younger, she was taken as a foster child by her relatives who were of a higher social class. She had trouble socializing with the rich kids and she could not fit it. She however worked very hard in school and joined college where she studied law. After graduating she was able to get a good job with a good salary and she could now be classified as being in the middle class. After sometimes, she decided to move back to her hometown in Pikkeville (Keller, 2013:62). She realized that she had now become sensitive to attributes that indicated the type of class that a person was in for example the type of car they drove, their house and so on. He felt that the people in the lower class did not understand her. She was unable to fit in this world again felt like an outsider. She confessed that class determines every aspect of a person’s life and it was everything. Chapter 5: On a Christian Mission to the Top This chapter explores the revolution in the Christian evangelism. While in the part evangelism was associated with poverty with the evangelist being called the disinherited, today evangelists are found among the rich and educated. The number of evangelist has remained fairly the same; however, their social and economic status has changed. The influence of the educated evangelist is felt in the university where they have a major influence because of their wealth. The author recognizes that the new status of evangelists have had an impact on the American culture. Because they evangelists are able to raise huge amounts of money they have built mega churches and amass great wealth from their congregation. The spread of evangelism has continued even to the boardroom. The author gives the story of Mr. Bennett who in his bit to bring together Christians has visited different places including the Wall Street boardrooms. The evangelist says that their increase in wealth is as a result of God working his miracles (Keller, 2013, 67). The author however shows through the example of Mr. Havens that these evangelists are heathen and use the church as a way of enriching themselves. Chapter 6: The College Drop Out Boom David Leonhard illustrates how many Americans drop out from college when they are lured by the little money they make from the part-time jobs they take. Many Americana drop from college with the intention of getting back after they have made some money. However, they find themselves with greater responsibilities and are unable to spare money for college. They end up working on menial jobs while they could be making good money if they finished college. Leonhard illustrates this by giving an example of Andy Blevins who dropped out of college to extend his summer job. According to him, the new job was a catch and he could now make more money than his parents did. He was comfortable with his paycheck and college did not seem attractive at that time anymore (Keller, 2013: 78). Nevertheless, this became his full time job. Research has shown that most people who drop out from college are from the lower class. They try to juggle between school and work as most have to work to pay their tuition. Some even take two or three jobs when they are still studying. In most cases they become overwhelmed by the huge workload and drop out of school. Research shows that 1 in 3 of American in their mid twenties drop out from college. It shows that although enrolment to college is very high, the graduate rates are not equally high (Keller, 2013: 89). Having a bachelor’s degree increases the chances of people climbing the social class. However, with the high college drop rates among the lower and middle class students, then class mobility continue to be low. References Keller, Bill, New York Times. (2013). Class Matters. Henry Halt & Company: New York. Read More