We can grasp the social reproductive dimension of the post-1973 crisis in various phenomena in the U.S., but none stands out more sharply than the disappearance of the one-paycheck working-class family, of which millions existed ca. 1960. The recognition that most of those single paychecks in 1960 were earned by ¡°white men¡± should not divert attention today, when two or more paychecks are required to maintain a working-class household, from a terrible rollback. Without for a moment denying the importance of the ¡°feminization of the work force¡±, the fact remains that millions of women entered the the U.S. work force after 1960 because they HAD to. Even at the individual level, the average work week has crept up from ca. 39 hours in 1970 to about 43 now. The minimum wage in the U.S. in 1973 was $3.25 per hour; today it is $6.15, and it would have to be raised to $18 to recover the purchasing power of the 1973 level. More broadly, real wages plateaud in 1965-1973 and have stayed flat or fallen (mainly fallen) for at least 80% of the population since...Social Reproduction for Beginners: Bringing the Real World Back In
I say there is a role for that because literally if you want to tell me my son's father has the right to take half of my custody when I have a newborn nursing infant that I just birthed myself I'm going to fight you because I think you're a jerk.This might surprise you, but the father might feel the same way. In fact, often times both parents feel strongly attached to their kids!
Imho, children should be raised by their grandparents, as already happens in poor families. If we do not choose this, the economics of scale dictate that eventually humanity shall turn to the state and corporations to raise them. A maternal instinct makes a lovely video game, but it's not a terribly efficient way to spend your twenties and thirties.Or, you could have your children in your teen years, so that by the time you're in your thirties your kids are already in your teens and out of your hair.
Yes, children USED to often be raised by grandparents, but the modern economy has the working poor and working class working well past the time their grandchildren are young.Well, if the economy stays bad I think what you'll see is larger households comprised of extended families that can't afford to live on their own. I think that's probably good for the kids, though as they have more adults around them to provide attention and care. It's not just mom, dad, and grandparents but also all your unemployed aunts and uncles.
France has an unemployment rate above 10 percent, which suggests limiting the work week is note quite the panacea you make it out to be.The UK has an unemployment rate of 7.8%. Italy has an unemployment rate of 11.1%. Ireland has an unemployment rate 14.6% Portugal has an unemployment rate of 16.3% Spain has an unemployment rate of 26.6%.
Most people I know making in the low 100s live in 3-4 bedroom houses and have 1-2 cars. Their kids go to public school. While they are much more privileged than those with less incomeSo? There are people who make millions of dollars a year who live in regular houses and drive regular cars.
Well, let's see. Owning a house is generally taken as a fairly low and reasonable middle-class indicator. If you need to make 40X your rent in order to get a place, I'd say it's reasonable to assume someone must make 40X their mortgage + utilities + property taxes + mandatory insurance in order to be fiscally responsible.That's insane. If you make a million dollars a year, and you spend $750k/year on a mortgage, you're not being fiscally irresponsible.
To the Zillow, Batman! Well, looks like there's plenty of houses in Crown Heights, Brownsville, Bed-Stuy, and other high-crime areas where no one in their right mind would voluntarily move with kids. Let's look at the median, some areas not known for being rich. How about Bensonhurst or Dyker Heights? Oh, zero houses or condos in that area for that price range. There's one, count it, one house in Bay Ridge.B) You're comparing the cost of rent and/or in NYC to owning a house in the suburbs somewhere? Just because you need to own a house in Alexandria, Virginia to be middle class doesn't mean you need to own a condo.
So yeah - you can be making that and still in the middle-class. If you are not able to buy a home in a safe - not even nice, but safe - neighborhood, you are absolutely middle class.Again, New York is not like other places. There is nothing un-middle-class about renting in NYC.
It's easy to shame, to say "Well I don't make that, so you are obviously rich as hell." But that is completely unfair to families that do have tough times on those levels.If "tough times" is defined as unable to afford property in NYC then I don't think you're going to find a lot of sympathy. Apparently 69% of the population rent Does that mean NYC is 69% less-then-middle-class?
Maybe skip the part where she brags about how much better her life is then other women's in NYMag?
Really, how perfectly optimized does a woman's life trajectory have to be before she's allowed to follow it without judgement?
There are plenty of people making "low six figures" in Des Moines. The median household income
Put another way, you can probably get a somewhat similar job in Des Moines, for less money.
I agree with bastionofsanity, you're not truly "Upper Class" if you still have to show up to a job every day. Wealthy lawyers who work 70 hour weeks may make obscene amounts of money but at the end of the day, they're tired.If someone plays WoW for 70 hours a week they'll probably be tired too. Rich lawyers don't work 70 hours a week because they have too, they do it because it's what they enjoy spending their time doing.
Yes, by train - but how expensive is that train? A look at the MTA page reveals it would cost 486$ a month, which kind of cancels out the benefit of the cheaper housebuying.Get a Tesla and charge at a supercharger station and it's free. Except for the $100k you paid for the car, but whatever.
Seems easy enough to see lower, lower-middle, middle, upper-middle and upper class as referring to quintiles, in which case it is very straightforward who is what. You are in the lower class until $18.5k per year, lower-middle is 18.5 to 34K, middle class is 34k to 55k, upper middle class is 55k to 88k, and yes, you're upper class if you break $88,000 per year within a household."Class" is a concept that transcends income. Income has a large part of it, but it's not the only thing.
those who were enrolled in a quality preschool program were more likely to graduate high school, own homes, stay married longer, and have higher incomes later in life.
participants, at age 30, had significantly more education than those in a control group and were four-times more likely to have earned a college degree. Participants in the early education group also were more likely to be employed, less likely to have used public-assistance, and not have children as young as those in the control group.This one, a Chicago study:
At age 28, the adults who received preschool educations years before had significantly higher job prestige, earnings and socioeconomic status. In addition to boosting the life-course prospects of the children who received preschool education, the program also saves society money. It costs around $8,000 to send a child to preschool for a half day during the school year, but the estimated benefits in terms of increased productivity and reduced cost to the criminal justice system put the savings at just over $80,000, a ten-fold return on investment.This one, an Oklahoma study:
The authors found test impacts of 3.00 points (0.79 of the standard deviation for the control group) for the Letter-Word Identification score, 1.86 points (0.64 of the standard deviation of the control group) for the Spelling score, and 1.94 points (0.38 of the standard deviation of the control group) for the Applied Problems score. Hispanic, Black, White, and Native American children all benefit from the program, as do children in diverse income brackets, as measured by school lunch eligibility status. The authors conclude that Oklahoma's universal pre-K program has succeeded in enhancing the school readiness of a diverse group of children.The number of unique words is a predictor of academic success. But where will you hear more unique words? From the vocabulary of a single individual? Or from the vocabularies of your own family plus individuals outside your family, often from other kinds of communities and backgrounds? Most kids hear and use far more words in a school environment than are ever used at home. Most kids in preschool and school encounter more literature, more music, and more theatre than they will at home. Many "educating environments" are in fact very small, with quite low child-teacher ratios, and even where they are not they use small-grouping strategies so that children recieve plenty of direct attention and group practice.
When my son asks me why condensation forms on a cold glass or my daughter asks me where a rainbow comes from, I don't say, "Derp! I don't know, so go ask your assigned government employee tomorrow".What percentage of the population do you think knows why water condenses on cold surfaces? Hopefully they'd look it up with their kid, but I think you'd be surprised about the general state of scientific education.
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posted by shakespeherian at 12:30 PM on March 18, 2013 [1 favorite]