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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: May 18, 2004
Latest Update: May 18, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Middle Class, Working Class, and Reality

Yes, the economy is recovering. Yes, there are more jobs offered this month. But no, the trickle down effect doesn't work. Though Far From Poor, a Family Struggles Daily By Geoffrey Mohan. "Two incomes put the Basurto clan well above the poverty line. Yet despite frugal living, they're middle class in name only." Los Angelse Times, p. A1, Tuesday, May 18, 2004. Backup.

More and more we are beginning to talk about how tired we are, how worried we are, how conflicted we are in whether to pay for education or a home, about whether the money there is can be spent on a young woman, who may just marry and stay home. No, that last didn't come up in the Times article. Thank goodness. But it does come up in my mind as I try to imagine what it's like to make such choices as health insurance or saving for a home, or providing opportunity for the boy already out of high school or the girly who has the skills and desire to go on.

As the labor market shifts abroad, not just with manufacturing jobs, but also with the white collar jobs on which so many have depended for so long, the primary concern seems to be where the corporation can generate the most profit, not what is in the best interest of the community. What community?

Discussion Questions

1. How does the ability to purchase a home relate to the stability of the community?

   By purchasing and owning property people become stake holders in the community as a whole. They have a broader interest than just their own concerns. Not being able to purchase means that there is a greater likelihood of instability and continual patterns of mobility as people try to find affordable housing, especially in areas like Los Angeles.

2. Whose job is it to see that a worker like Mr. Basurto finds work?

   Nobody's. Yet it is a state interest to see that workers are able to find work. The heavy emphasis on corporate structuring and organizatiion, even at the community level, is shifting our focus toward cost benefit analysis. There is no way to measure effectively the cost of Mr. Basurto's lack of any supervising agency to turn to when there is no work available. Now, as his sons graduate from high school, they, too face the irony of it being no one's responsibility to guide or help them in finding work.

3. The Basurtos manage with two incomes. What is the cost to this family of the second income?

   Consider exhaustion, a mother sometimes too tired to cook, though she still must. Consider the intense needs for understanding and support as the young people go out into the labor market. Consider how much emotional energy is left over to deal with those needs.

4. Notice that Mrs. Basurto has two part-time jobs. Consult the Bureau of Labor Statistics and see how common this is:

   Multiple Job Holdings

   . . . More later. jeanne