HW 34 - The Cool Pose and Various Approaches to Life

Today in class, we discussed so called social maps. These maps have been theorized to be the framework for which each race, gender, nationality, and economic class exemplifies its values and aspirations. Mainly, we discussed how the African American community has developed a "map" that values appearances and money, but not so much the steps needed to get money. For the black community, the social map they have, causes a majority of the people to value expensive clothing over ambition, and athletic ability over education. To be clear I don't think this is at the fault of the African American community. Also, I don't think this is directly the fault of the caucasian community either. I think that this transcends race, and is a more "economic class map" than a "racial class map".

As a whole, the percentage of black people in the lower economic class in America is the highest out of any other ethnic group in the US. For that reason, the black community has become the face of the lower class in America, fairly or unfairly. If you looked at other ethnic groups, and observed the lower classes of those groups, you would probably find that they had similar tendencies and goals as those in the black community. The difference is, that for the black population in America, the odds of getting a job or being wealthy are heavily against them. Black people are still discriminated against, and have to work harder than their competitors of other ethnicities to succeed.

The main problem in America, is our sense of entitlement. Although their are many philanthropic people in the upper class who contribute large sums to charitable organizations, the majority do not. People who are born into wealth will often just flaunt their wealth, consuming expensive liquor and purchasing expensive clothing, without considering the fact that while you may be buying a pair of $400 dollar Louis Vuitton shoes, you could be buying 20 pairs of Starbury's for people who need shoes, for the same price. Really though, this is expected, this is part of the American cultural map, and it knows no race or economic class.

This American map, is that asinine thing we like to call "The American Dream". Because we all know America is the "land of opportunity", but not who we step on along the way to a better life. Social climbing is naturally how a country without caste system works, thus we have a country of people trying to fill up the top class by pushing everyone else to the bottom. We think about how we can improve our own lives, and never give any thought to the fact that all people want a better life, not just us. Unfortunately this has bred excessive lifestyles and indulgent lives, revolving around us and a select group of people close to us. We have our cultural map, starting at poverty, ending in wealth. We have become a society which more often than not adheres to this map, and every so often, the select few people who actually are living the American dream try to ensure people with a good life.

I think that in a way, laws of physics play a part, being that the law "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" applies to economics as well as physics. What I mean by this, is that for every dollar we make, someone will have less, and for every dollar we spend, someone has more. Only when their is no action, will their be no reaction. It is at this point an equilibrium is reached, and nobody has less or more than anyone else. In order for our country to truly provide the American dream, we don't need a perfect equilibrium, or division of wealth amongst the classes. What we need is not to have classes at all. The upper class is the reason why we have a lower class, and the middle class is the main commodity of the upper class, thus completing the cycle.

In this cycle, we have three different classes, each with their own map. The lower class has a map, which starts with poverty, aspires for wealth, and ends up remaining in poverty. The middle class map starts off slightly about the lower class, aspires to achieve wealth slightly greater than their parents, and ends up achieving that (for the most part). Than, the upper class map comes into play and fucks it all up. The upper class aspires to stay right where it is, and does so by using the labor of the middle and lower class to turn a profit. This gives the middle class college graduates the majority of these jobs, and the lower class only a small percentage. In the end, the best class to be in is of course the upper class, but the middle class manages to achieve its goals equally as well.

Knowing about the lavish lifestyles of the wealthy makes the middle and lower classes aspire to achieve that, as if it were the golden standard of a life worth living. We look up to this, and find joy in purchasing expensive things when this is actually part of the reason why people live in housing projects, and my mother works 12 hour days. Emulating this lifestyle is possibly the worst thing a lower class individual can do, and is the only real part of the poverty in America that IS the fault of the lower class.

Pretending we can live beyond our means is why kids in the projects have 20 pairs of Jordan's, but live on food stamps, and why the middle class has become horribly in debt to the credit card companies. It's pitiful, but our social maps sometimes are so blinding to us, that we ignore reality completely. The money we spend on "shit", could be used within our communities, to improve our own living conditions, to get an education, but it's not. We spend it on Jordan's, Louis belts, Gucci bags, and in reality, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is on the verge of not even being able to maintain a steady income anymore. If this continues, the current middle class today will be part of the lower class in a matter of years.