expanding middle/upper class

From: renee hayes (emujobs@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Jan 18 2000 - 02:28:39 PST


Hi Folks.

I was kind of interested in this bit that Eugene wrote about the notion of
an expanding middle and upper class in the world...

"I wonder if it is true that the percentage of people on the Earth who
belong to middle and upper classes has been increased in this century ...."
(then there was this whole part about counting the millenium) "...This is
definitely true for some countries (like USA, Western Europe, Canada,
Australia, Japan, Southern Korea, Taiwan). But maybe it is even true for
China, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Middle East, and Eastern Europe including
Russia at a lesser scope. What about Africa?
Anyway, if it is true would you consider this as evidence for optimism?"

So I guess I find this interesting because I have a hard time disentangling
sort of negative associations of consumerism and exploitation with my
innately western (well, American) notions of middle and upper class. I
realized this, though, when I read Eugene´s question because my first
instinctive response was something like "hey, that´s not so great,
encroachment of middle/upper class..." but then I had to stop and
reevaluate. Maybe middle class just means comfortable, not needing to
struggle for survival...and can be seen in a purer light than that which I
initially cast it.

So I am making this internal dialog (struggle) explicit and public so that I
can know what kind of ideas you(all) have about class, and whether you(all)
also make certain insidious associations with it, and whether you(all) think
it is a good thing if the world´s middle and upper class are growing. And
what do we mean by growing...that more people are comfortable, or that the
same or fewer people are in possession of more goods...? I had always
thought of growing upper class as neccessarily hard for lower class...is
this true in this sense?

Renee
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