Poverty In America

Krista Henry

Thomas Reynolds

English 3210.02I

Summary #9

Poverty in America

Manrsios, Gregory. "Class in America-2003": The Social Construction of Gender." Trans. Paula S. Rothenberg. Race, Class, and Gender in the United State. 6th ed. New York: Worth Publishers, 2004. 193-207.

In the essay of "Class in America-2003" by, Gregory Mantsios is basically about the rich and the poor of America. In Mantsios essay he talks about upper class, middle class, and lower class Americans. The most common clad the Gregory Mantsios talks about is the middle class. The reason middle class Americans are talked about so much in this essay is because; the majority of the American population is middle class people. Mantsios discuses a few points o how each class is treated and how it is contradictory. So he gives four myths about the beliefs of Americans middle class.

In myth one Mantsios states, "Rich or poor, we are all equal in the eyes of the law," I find that this statement is not true at all (194). The reason I say that a statement like this, that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law is not true is because of the personal experiences that I have seen. America's politicians would like to think that our country is equal but we are far from equal. I have seen many wealthy people get out of trouble because of their money that they have and then a middle class person perform the same crime and spend time in jail for it, I find that this is a little odd. Maybe that my town is the only place where wealth can help you get out of trouble but, I honestly think that this happens every where. In myth two, Mantsios, state that "We are, essentially, a middle-class nation" (194). I believe Mantsios is right about our nation being mostly middle-class, the reason our nation is middle-class is because of the jobs that we are offered and the salaries that we are paid. I believe that the middle-class American's are not paid enough and this even counts for the well educated people that have degrees and masters. The first job that I think of when someone is not being paid enough are the teachers. Every teacher has some type of degree or even their masters so why should they not be paid as much as a lawyer or a doctor, because they are the ones that got the lawyers and doctors where they are at today. Teachers should be paid the highest salary that there