Every Year...I pay the government for permission to drive my car down the street.
I pay a doctor for permission to take drugs.If I make a small mistake, I pay the city a fine.
And if I make a big mistake, I pay a lawyer to fix it for me.As long as everybody gets paid - I am considered a good citizen.
As long as every thug in a suit gets a cut of my paycheck - I am allowed to stay out of jail, and will be treated as an equal by other members of this pathetic facade we call the middle class.
If I fall short of this ideal, I will be ostracized by my friends, harassed by the legal system and viewed as a morally inferior person, suffering from the results of my bad choices.
But in my opinion, the only thing separating me and my suburban neighbors from the meth-addicts living in the trailer park 15 minutes away, are the abstract principles of money and education.
Morality and good life choices have virtually nothing to do with this class division. But middle-class people like myself continue to insist that they do, and teach our children the same.
Why?
Because poor people take drugs, steal things and carry guns?
Hell,
We take drugs. We take more expensive drugs, and more of them. We prescribe drugs to our children, too. We drive our cars faster and more recklessly while texting on our expensive phones under the influence of better alcohol.
We steal all the time, except we smile and pay divorce lawyers to do it for us. Because we can afford to do all of those things.
We carry guns too. We stock our houses with them in the name of self defense, and pay the local police department for licenses to conceal them in public. Because the Police Department is on Our Team. We literally think about it in those terms, and teach that to our children as well.
"Cops are your friends. Cops protect us from the bad guys, sweetheart."
And who are the bad guys we picture in our heads? Poor people. Insane people. Black people.
When the news media talks about class warfare in modern times, they always reference "The 1%". A concept we can all agree to hate.
But the 1% doesn't really oppress poor people. WE DO. With our absurd concept of regulated morality.
The middle class oppresses the poor in a much more direct way than any Wall Street broker has in recent years. The residents of the trailer park down the street would not be affected by the housing market collapsing overnight. They pay rent weekly, in cash. If the landlord went broke, they would pack up and move to different trailer park.
But we're the ones calling the cops to investigate our lower class neighbors whenever they have a house party. Screening out job applicants who appear "sketchy". Voting for politicians who are "tough on crime"
I think we do it because we are closer to them, competing with them for resources, and terrified of becoming them.Thoughts?
...(Author's note: I grew up in a trailer home - the middle child in family of seven making less than $24,000 a year.
My first job was at McDonalds making minimum wage. Now, at 24, I'm a retail distribution manager with a comfortable salary, full benefits and a middle class lifestyle. This commentary comes only from my personal observations of the lower and middle class in America, and the way I've seen these two interact.)