# Is there a growing "American underclass," and who's in it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-growing-american-underclass-and-whos-in-it/55896>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 26, 2001, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-growing-american-underclass-and-whos-in-it/55896 "2001-02-26T05:55:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![justwannano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7ab992/32.png) [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-growing-american-underclass-and-whos-in-it/55896/81 "2001-03-09T03:37:47Z")

</div>

Please disregard the previous post. I guess I just feel whiny today.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2001, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-growing-american-underclass-and-whos-in-it/55896/82 "2001-03-09T05:47:23Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by featherlou \*  
> I agree with your opinion of class society to a point. I don’t agree completely that upper class people don’t realize that the world isn’t like their priviledged existences; I think they know and truly don’t care. I believe this attitude is called “I got mine.”

I think upper class people are just like everyone else. Some are nice and some are jerks.

Having been raised in an upper middle class environment my entire life, I don’t pretend to know what it’s like to be “poor”. “Poor” to a lot of my friends means that you drive a $12,000 VW Jetta instead of a $30,000 BMW. When you and everyone you hang out with is a consultant, lawyer, banker, or MBA at a Fortune 500 company and all their parents are partners in firms or directors or business owners it warps your perception of how the world really is. Especially if you live around NYC, Boston, SanFran or any major city where its not uncommon to meet people who make $500k a year.

Our society definitely segregates people by socioeconomic class. Especially in the suburbs where towns have elaborate codes to “keep undesireables out”. Personally I like living in urban areas where you get a more diverse cross section of people.

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by featherlou \*  
> I think the loyalty and productivity boat has sailed. Lower level employees have been kicked around so much by this point that the concept of loyalty to an employer is laughable. Your statement about investing in employees is interesting; it appears to me that you advocate improving conditions for employees to increase their productivity and cut costs for the employer, not for the actual benefit of the employees themselves. Sort of like a farmer’s attitude towards his herd; “Give the cows a slightly better grade of hay, and you’ll increase milk production by 25%”.

In a way, I guess I am. A business owner is motivated by profits, not by the well being of his employees. At least not directly. Usually the best way to convice your boss to give you a raise is to demonstrate how valuable you are, not how badly you need the raise.

Good managers build a strong culture that fosters teamwork and cooperation. They treat their employees as a long term investment in the company.

The sucky managers (like the ones at my company) treat each employee as a $$$$. They squeeze as much work out of them as they can until they get fed up and quit. Then they’re all like “why did he leave?”. It’s funny to watch our managers claim they’re trying to fix the morale problem while never leaving their offices to actually talk to an employee.

[/QUOTE]  
\*\*  
[/QUOTE]  
\*\*  
[/QUOTE]

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-growing-american-underclass-and-whos-in-it/55896.md?page=4)