Pre Write: A middle class struggle

A history professor once gave a definition of middle class once, it went something like “the simple desire to give your children more than you had and the children’s simple desire to have more than their parents had.” If we put this into perspective this places a vast majority of our society in the so called “middle class.” Just as Mike Lefevre discussed in his interview about his desire to see his son go onto college and gain an education so that he can better provide for himself and his children. This is truly the cycle of the middle class citizen, the desire to achieve more. This desire to achieve or gain more was discussed in our first paper with the reading by Laurence Shames the “The More Factor.” It seems as the lower class in our economic society is hard pressed to simply make ends meet each month. As Barbara Ehrenreich discussed in her excerpt “Selling in Minnesota” how she took a minimum wage earning position at the local corporate giant Wal-Mart to explore the lifestyle that many low income families live day in and day out. She expresses some great points in how there goals are very different from those of the middle class, such as the pure goal of making sure that there is food on the table and clothes on the children’s backs.