We can't ALL be the middle class.

We can't ALL be middle class. That defeats the purpose of being *middle* class. Yet almost all americans when asked will say they are middle class, weather they are the upper crust of american society or below the poverty line. And truth be told, a true middle class is shrinking, almost out of existence.

The saying "the rich get rich and the poor get poorer" has never been more true. So why is it that everyone believes that they can transcend class lines? How is it that we believe that our place in society is given to us by our own efforts?

Because it is possible.

When, in class, we did an activity to give context to the breakdown of land and wealth in our country (via cookies) I was in the lowest of the lower class group: the ones with the least. yet, I stood firmly with both feet in my place, and actually ended up with 4 cookies to myself. Through grabbing at every opportunity possible, biding my time, and thinking, I got more than...a good portion of my other classmates. So, theoretically, the same principle can be extended to the real world: with patience, eagerness, and intelligence, you can rise the classes, or, with out these, fall down. This is not a caste system, where we are born into a place and are just...there, forever. It is possible to move up or down depending on your own merit.

But that's all. It's possible. But not likely.

Look at those people living in the mountains of Kentucky. The boy who played football had a chance to come out based solely on merit. But because of where he lived, and what he had, he couldn't. The people there are not there because they chose it, it is because that is where they were born, and where they stayed. While people in America are not socially obliged to stay in there classes like those in caste systems, they usually do because of the limited options available to them.

That is the problem with our sociological system, and most social hierarchies like ours. It in theory works, and therefore people says it works, but in actuality, it only rarely works. Those who are on the top believe they have gotten there from their own doing, when, usually, it's because they were born with privilege,  and those on the bottom have accepted their fate, like the untouchables in India, and believe that no matter how hard they try they can't get out of it, and so many don't try.

I think, like most things in this world, compromise is necessary. We have the right idea, but we are not there yet. The top need humbling, the bottom need hope, because the people in the middle, are probably one or the other.