Socio-Economic Classes Around the World

All throughout history there have always been economic classes. It is an essential part of a functioning market and has never successfully been challenged. Yet in recent modern times, it has been challenged more strongly to various degrees. What kind of economic society is realistically most efficient and how is globalization changing this?

Generally there is a small percentage of the population existing in the upper class, while the majority can vary between lower and middle class status. Beyond the obvious reasons, a majority middle class is the most efficient. Karl Marx recognized that an oppressed lower class of people is likely to cause a revolution. Historically this can be seen through the French Revolution along with all peasant or farmer revolts. However, the idea of a Marxist revolution has been twisted by figures such as Lenin and Mao to crush class structure from above and inevitably lead to the dissolution of any kind of middle class. Fighting the natural balance has proven to be far more detrimental than progressive.

The CIA World Fact Book estimates that 15.1% of Americans live below the poverty line.  However, these statistics are on an adjusted scale compared to the poverty line as described by the World Bank. Most of the ‘poor’ in the United States is better off than the majority of people within Africa, the Middle East, and even South America and Asia. What has happened is economic classes are being broken down into national categories. Cheap labor is provided from developing countries where there is no such thing as minimum wage.

Americans fight for social justice and economic equality, but it is only at the expense of those people abroad. We complain about the sharp contrast between the rich and the poor but most citizens have never gone to countries like India where extravagant hotels and designer stores are set across the street from slums where large families cram into one room and live with only a tarp over their head. The nation has forgotten what true poverty is, in all our prosperity and wealth we look at the most unfortunate among us and remain blind to the millionss who live on the equivalent of less than one dollar a day. Economic classes will always exist; it is time to be thankful for the greatness of the American middle class and work to promote such growth around the world.