Class Matters by the New York Times - Essay Example

7 May Matters by the New York Times Introduction has long been a topic of discussion in past and present societies alike. Going back in history, the Romans and Greeks are good examples of societies which depicted class. Presently, in a country like the United Kingdom there is an indirect form of class where there are royals and commoners who make up the general population. In the American society any person who takes close observation will realize the huge disparities that exist in power, authority, prestige, and material wealth in the society. Disparities can also be noted concerning accessibility of basic social needs like healthcare, freedom, and education. In the United States, one child out of five lives in abject poverty. When this is compared to other societies, it is found that one child out of ten lives in poverty in major town regarded as industrial towns. When these disparities are grouped, they are found to be the sources of the inequality that exist in almost every society in the world. It is rare to find a society where all are equal. In fact, the book “The animal farm,” depicts a scenario whereby some animals are equal than others. It can be asked, do these disparities create class, or does class create the disparities? When class in the society is talked about, what does it mean? Sociologists agree and define class as a collection of persons who live in a similar economic structure of fabrication. This paper is a summary of class matters by the New York Times. As Scott and Leonhardt note, the time that Americans thought that they comprehended class is gone. This was a time when those of the upper class had holidays in Europe; those of the middle class drove average cars like the Ford and were employed in companies while those of the working class voted as Democrats. Presently, America is way behind towards a scenario of classlessness. In fact, it has become hard to distinguish persons by their material possessions, their way of voting and even skin color. The thin lines that defined classes have vanished. However, class is still an imperative force in America. It has stamped its presence in the American society in a powerful way. In fact over the last ten years or more, class has had very vital roles in the society. Why is this so? Education has become more vital than ever and success in education matters has become strongly linked to class. The wealthier are secluding themselves more and more. Due to advances in health, class variations in health are getting bigger and bigger (Scott and Leonhardt, n.p.). The basic structure of the society is the family. Families have long been the root of all societies in the world. The way of life, the characteristics, and shapers of the family setting have a great bearing on the features of the society as a whole. One term that is commonly used by sociologists is mobility. What is mobility? Mobility is the movement of families through the economic scale. Either up or down. By looking at mobility, researchers have found that it has decreased with time up to the present. Just after World War II, mobility was on the rise, but many years later, it has reached a stationary phase. Movement in mobility is a positive indication that there is transfer of possessions and other things which define class. This is to mean that the gap between those in possession and those without reduces. In fact, mobility is the hope at the root of the American dream (Scott and Leonhardt, n.p.). Denial is one of the worst diseases if it can be termed as an illness. Why is this so? It is so because many Americans live in denial concerning class. Many Americans do not talk about class so long as they can become the other, as long as there is an opportunity to cross the barrier of class. This shows a strong sense of individuality in Americans. But denial shall not help Americans break the barriers set up by class. Class has set up hindrances which affect other aspects of the society. Aspects such as health, marriage, finances and the American dream, just to name but a few (Scott and Leonhardt, n.p.). Class affects aspects of the society in different ways. Taking a specific look at health, Scott (n.p.) notes that, life at the top of the class in a society is better and has a lower mortality rate. This point is illustrated by the use of health case scenarios involving a heart attack. One case involved Jean who had a heart attack on the sidewalk in midtown Manhattan. An architect by professional, he had just had an expensive lunch with friends. The other case involved Wilson who had a heart attack in the bedroom of his brownstone. An office worker by profession, he was talking with his wife about a dinner he was remorseful about. The third case involved Gora who had a heart attack in her rental room. A maid by profession, she told her husband not to call for the ambulance as it would be expensive. So, the three were all faced by a similar threat. But due to class, their experiences over time took different directions. The disparities that define class, namely, employment, education, income, and richness were determinants in their different roads ton discovery (Scott, n.p.). The issue involved here was healthcare and class was a major player. It shaped the health care they got, their family backgrounds they went back to and the areas of employment they were to get back to. Class defined the way they understood heart attacks, the manner in which their families took care of them and how doctors treated them. Class shaped the potential to alter their lives. It also defined the likelihood of each one of them healing (Scott, n.p.). In America, class is a big determinant of health. As stated earlier, health is a big aspect in the society. What class shows is that with increased education and higher sources of income, then the likelihood of persons to die as a due to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and stroke is low. Americans who make up the upper middle class are healthier and as a result live longer than their counterparts in the middle class. Concurrently, Americans who make up the middle class are healthier and live longer than their counterparts in the lower class. Researchers indicate that the gaps are growing bigger with time (Scott, n.p.). Research shows that improvements in health issues such as prevention and treatments have increased the overall life expectancy of the average American person. However, this has not been extrapolated to the people in a disproportionate manner. Connections have played a big part on how advances in healthcare have been experienced by citizens. People who are educated, wealthy and have better jobs are more likely to experience better health care, obtain new and handy information, and get the best treatment there is in the market. Even the manner in which people obtain health insurance is determined by class (Scott, n.p.). Education is a vital aspect of the society. An educated society provides a very able workforce for the country. Education levels determine class levels. At present, risk factors associated with the chronic diseases stated above are more prevalent among persons who are of low education levels than those who are of higher education levels. A disease like Cancer is caused by factors such as smoking. Among persons who are educated, incidences of smoking have reduced while for those who are less educated, it has not. As a result, Cancer rates are high among the less educated. The less educated are associated with the lower class (Scott, n.p.). As for heart related illnesses, physical activities are highly related to heart illnesses. People who exercise more reduce the risks associated with developing heart related illnesses. Persons who practice less have higher chances of developing heart related illnesses. Physical activity and class are associated such that persons of the lower class undertake less physical activities than those in the upper class. Men undertake more physical activity than women. Low levels of activity among women means that they are more prone to chronic illnesses than men. However, when women alone are considered, women in the lower class tend to be overweight than those in the upper class. It can be seen that class affects health differences among people in the society depending on the class they belong to (Scott, n.p.). Going back to the cases stated earlier, the experience of Jean was that of proper and appropriate care that a person under a heart attack should receive. His friends called the ambulance for him. There after he was taken to hospital had a very busy emergency centre. This meant that the hospital had the appropriate facilities to cater for emergency medical cases. He received surgery to treat his condition as quickly as possible. As for Wilson, he chooses a hospital that served three low class neighborhoods. Rather than receive immediate corrective measures, a drug to suppress his condition was administered to him as the hospital lacked the facilities to offer corrective surgery. The drug did not work because he redeveloped the condition again and had to be transferred to another hospital the next day. It is there that surgery was undertaken. This is in contrast to the quick treatment that Jean received. As for Gora, her initial reaction was refusal to call an ambulance. When the ambulance was called, she resisted been taken away and had to be talked into been taken to hospital by the medical team. In contrast to Wilson’s case, she was not given an option to choose a hospital. At the hospital, it took time for the medical personnel to diagnose her condition. On diagnosis, drugs were administered to control the condition. She was transferred to another hospital the next day but no corrective surgery was ever done on her (Scott, n.p.). In the modern society, marriage is a prestigious thing to hold. This is in spite of the religion from which one hails from. Persons from all religions take marriage as a precious thing which if possible, each individual should marry in the society. However, such a thing is not possible due to the differences that exist in society. These differences are many and varying. As a result, not every person is married. On the perspective of the topic been talked about, class at times plays a crucial part in this important social aspect of our society. It is through marriage of people from different backgrounds, places, ethnicities and the like that diversity is created. According to Lewin (n.p.), marriage that goes past class boundaries might not present the likely and expected challenges as marriage that goes past, for example, ethnicity. However, in an indirect manner, persons who have married persons from a different class tend to drift away from their areas of reassurance to areas where they are filled with uncertainties. Why is it termed as uncertainties? For example, an individual from a lower class marrying an individual from an upper class is faced by a different scenario from which he or she has originally faced. A scenario with another level of education, wealth, possessions, and quality of life different from what he or she used to experience before. Postulations are also different at this level of class as the options are many, the option to take a vacation, the option to buy a certain kind of food over another and many more. This is normally different from what he or she used to experience in their original class. With this in mind, it can be concluded that marriage that breaks the class barriers usually involves one partner who is well endowed financially, has more choices, and in most cases determines how power is shared in the marriage. As of now, it is impossible to precisely state the number of marriages that have broken the class barriers in the United States. However, to the limit that education functions as a determinant for class, then these marriages are on the decline (Lewin, n.p.). When education is considered, even though partners seem to be defying religion and race in marriages now, the number of people choosing people with different education backgrounds is on the decline. In fact, more and more people are marrying people who are a match for them in so many facets of their life. A common scenario of matches is that of celebrities like Beyonce and Jay –z. Such a couple represents persons who married a match of the other in so many aspects of their lives. When education is considered, it is commonplace to for men to marry women of lower education levels than them. Society seems to have a soft spot for such marriages. It is good to note that lower education levels are highly linked to the lower class. However, studies indicate that this is changing; women who have higher education are marrying men with less education. The studies show that these marriages have the highest frequency of divorces taking place in the country (Lewin, n.p.). Lewin, (n.p.) give an example of a case whereby Woolner and Croteau are married, They are from different class but have gone through similar occurrences that drew them together. They also have many common likes. However, in the face these common likes, there are differences resulting from their different class. Their religions are different but that is not an issue for Wooler. Class stumps its presence in their marriage by the fact that Croteau who is the man in the marriage is from the working class while Wooler, the wife is from a wealthy class (Lewin, n.p.). The differences due to class are magnified when the way in which Croteau grew up is told. He says that he had a difficult childhood and maturation into adulthood. For one, his family was not well up hence had a difficult child hood, then growing into adulthood, he had to look for good jobs in factories so to say. He says he felt that the wealthy were inhabitants of another world. As for Woolner, it is not coincidental that it would be said that her origins are that other world Croteau felt. Her childhood was different from her husband’s, vacations, many comforts, lots of choices to choose from and adequate education. Maturing into adulthood, she was faced by a modest inheritance with monies. As such, financially, she was endowed. She states that she was oblivious of the much she had and it always played in her mind. This case shows a case of a marriage involving different class (Lewin, n.p.). The case example is a good scenario to learn from in terms of how class affects marriages. Society has taught people that in a marriage set up, men are supposed to be the one who provides money, controls power, and is of the higher status. However, our case indicates the opposite as the wife, Woolner is the one who provides money, controls power, and is of the higher status. Because of this, Croteau the husband feels like he is after her money. He states that her wife Woolner is the key decision maker due to her endowment. As his wife, he also feels that she comes with a lot of quality, but in that quality she has that weight that suppresses him down. This indicates that in a marriage, class negatively affects the spouse who hails from the lower class. This is especially true if the spouse from the lower class is the man. His ego is crushed and his self esteem lowered (Lewin, n.p.). His wife indicated that on marriage, she gave him money to buy a new car and pay off debts. In fact, she notes that the money was because of being born into class while he was born into a lower class. Due to this class difference, power sharing and balancing was a very sensitive issue. Reason been that she controlled power and her husband was not used to it. This showed that because Woolner is from the upper class and Croteau is from the lower class she always had the upper hand (Lewin, n.p.). It is evident that the individual from the lower class is the one who is most affected by such a marriage. The job that Croteau got after marriage indicates the effects of marriages across class. When working at Northfield Mount Hermon, he was in his usual work ethics mode where meeting deadlines was paramount for business. Once he requested why a vendor did not meet the deadline only to be rebuffed by the supervisor that vendors are not shouted at, this indicated that in their world, people from the upper class have no deadlines but have guidelines (Lewin, n.p.). From marriage, the case of immigrants is entirely different. Immigrants consist of persons who are caught in an almost lasting scenario of lower class. A class associated with low education and skills. Depalma (n.p.) notes that for many immigrants who have escaped from Mexico into the U.S., the only work they can find solace in is a restaurant job. Immigrants find the American dream of climbing up the ladder of economic success and subsequently class very hard to achieve. In spite of all their efforts, their immigrant tags hinder them from achieving their aspirations. It makes them stay in their low class. Immigrant movement into America has created an environment where there is a large amount of workers making up the lower class. They are faced by the plight that all they can do is move from one low paying job to another but very rarely are they able to move from one low paying job to another well paying job (Depalma, n.p.). Class has condemned immigrants to the lower end of society due to the attitude towards them. It is said that attitude is everything and in that concept, if the society has an attitude condemning immigrants to the lower class, then that defines even the social status of immigrants in the society. Studies that have been done have indicated that the hindrances that immigrants face have a huge impact on their class status and makes them rag behind other citizens (Depalma, n.p.). From these discussions presented in class matters by New York Time, it can be said that class is very much prevalent in the American society. Class affects almost each aspect of society. The differences resulting from class affect society in different ways. Society constitutes of people. Hence, the people are affected. Whether class is on the decline or on the rise, such does not matter as to its presence. It is still there and does not seem to be going away in the near future. Works Cited DePalma, Anthony. “15 Years on the Bottom Rung.” The New York Times: Class Matters A Special Selection, 26 May 2005. Print. Lewin, Tamar. When Richer Weds Poorer, Money Isn’t the Only Difference.” The New York Times: Class Matters A Special Selection, 19 May 2005. Print. Scott, Janny & David Leonhardt. “Shadowy Lines That Still Divide.” The New York Times: Class Matters A Special Selection, 15 May 2005. Print. Scott, Janny. “Life at the Top in America Isn’t Just Better, It’s Longer.” The New York Times: Class Matters A Special Selection, 16 May 2005. Print. Read More