https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X
True story, that's how it worked in the Robert Taylor homes. The gang leaders, building managers, and police had an uneasy truce.
If someone did some stupid shit that was out of line, the gang leaders would make sure to quietly rat out the perpetrator via the building crew.
I'm pretty sure that the recent rise in random street violence is directly related to the breakup/gentrification of the project homes. It's no different from the mafia or yakuza - once the central power is broken up, there are lots of low level thugs scrambling for money/power and nobody to keep them in line.
It wouldn't surprise me if he lived down there. There is this book "The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City" about homeless people who live inside subway and maintenance tunnels beneath New York City.
Its also common for people to live in the flood tunnels beneath Las Vegas, since it rarely rains in Las Vegas.
i remember reading a book by an anthropologist on black milwaukee. i forgot what its called. he found that, if i recall, 1/2 of black people in that city have been evicted at some point and chronically homeless because of the fucked up housing system. it's apocalyptic levels of exploitation and segregation there
edit: book is called <em>Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City</em> by Matthew Desmond
Because despite what we're all told, there really isn't such a thing as an unskilled job. There was a bestseller ten years ago Nickel and Dimed where the author set aside her graduate degree, job history, and finances to try and start with nothing and get by.
One of her experiences was that even the most unskilled jobs take skill.
If you havent already read it I would recommend Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. The book is a little dated, but it does a really good job of explaining why its so hard for poor Americans to escape poverty. The idea of the book is that Ehrenreich works a series of minimum wage jobs undercover to learn about the trials and tribulations of the working poor. Its a fantastic book and is a really good starting place for learning more about the working poor.
This question gets people RILED UP. Darling, in America we have no class system, you know that. :P
There's a very interesting book that's now pretty dated but gives a solid foundation on this topic called "Class" A guide through the American Status System by Paul Fussell. Read it for an eye opening look into how it is!
He points out that things like no white after Labor Day and similar strictures (I was raised to believe that patent leather is not worn by polite society, or that pierced ears on children are vulgar, for example) are part of a class system that places people with nothing but time to drift around the globe in search of sport and leisure at the top. So naturally you wouldn't wear white after Labor Day as you're now in moving on to Eden Roc and tennis season is over or whatever :P
However that's high WASP preppy. That's not the only kind of "wealthy" there is! Plenty of people who are genuinely mind bogglingly rich wear flashy clothes and have diamond encrusted watches and so on.
Fussell also points out that there's a class that's beyond class: artists and the children of movie stars, the hyper-wealthy service class people (like let's say "energy workers" who work with the stars) or trustafarian types. Those people wear ironic brands and pad around first class cabins in bare feet with no bra (the book was written in like 1983).
Fascinating read.
You bring up a solid point, however you're falling into the just world fallacy. Not everyone that can't put together a 1000 dollars 'deserved' it. My guess is that at least 50% of that 63% number are hardworking americans working multiple jobs that simply can't break out of the paycheck to paycheck trap. The cost of living has been outpacing pay for 30 years.
I agree that some people simply don't budget properly or are miss appropriating or aren't using their time to get skills etc. but that's simply not the entire story at all
There's a good book on this called Nickeled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.
This is not coming from a bleeding heart liberal either. I'm a libertarian that wants to see welfare reduced but that doesn't mean there aren't some serious problems with the economy right now.
There was an amazing book called Nickel and Dimed that discussed this. Basically a decently well-off woman took a bunch of minimum wage jobs to see what it was like to live off minimum wage. She wrote about how difficult it was to make ends meet and how hard she worked, but in the back of her mind she always knew this was temporary. She'd signed up for this "experience" and at then end of it she'd go back to her easier life. It helped her mentally push through a lot of the bullshit she had to deal with, and she said she couldn't imagine how terrifying and exhausting life would be for someone who didn't have her fallback.
Not directly about Trump, but if you want insight read Fussel's book on Class. Still mostly accurate even though it came out in the 70s iirc. https://www.amazon.com/Class-Through-American-Status-System/dp/0671792253
Class in the US is only somewhat related to money. It mostly has to do with preferences and cultural attitudes that are very hard to shake once they're ingrained as the default for a person at a young age.
This book caused a lot of stir this year when it was released in June. It explains the culture of the areas like Leah's where the poverty is generational. I grew up in an area in rural PA. It was thriving farming community in the 80's but now is run down and trashy, nothing like when I was a kid. I imagine the kids are a lot like Leah and her cousins.
It stuck a huge chord with many because this is a group of people largely ignored in America. If anyone likes reading this kind of thing, I linked its Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Hillbilly-Elegy-Memoir-Family-Culture/dp/0062300547
I don’t think Americans spend anywhere near the amount of time thinking about class that the British do.
To the extent that we think about it at all, it’s more about cultural norms than income. A good book to read about this is Class by Paul Fussell .
Still not quite right unfortunately.
J.D. Vance talks about it in Hillbilly Elegy. They are voting for their interests, their interests just aren't economic, its the social issues republicans have spent 50 years indoctrinating their base to believe as the most important.
Great book btw, still relevant today considering 70mil people voted for Trump.
The most effective thing the rich has ever done is manipulate the middle class into thinking that poverty is the poor man’s fault. Meanwhile, people have actually lived, tested, and then lived it again.
Spoiler alert: The middle class are brainwashed as hell into thinking they know what happens to the poor.
From just reading the title made me think of this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681
Summarizes a lot of the hardships and how the system makes things harder for lower income people that I've seen on posts here.
Check out: Gang Leader for a Day: https://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/014311493X -- the dealers don't make much money at all. They are kickin' the money to people up the food chain.
No, he’s really not, but he’s paying a lot to make you think so.
Recommended reading: No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1784786233/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_navT_a_4D58SM17YMSWBR8JPM7H
I would respectfully disagree and say, unfortunately, the pit goes so much deeper.
https://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Poverty-Profit-American-City/dp/0553447459
Yes. If anyone is interested in reading more about what CT has discussed in the last paragraph, I encourage you to read the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City."
I'm not sure which student loan company you work for, or how much they're paying you to shit post this with the standard issue feigned "internet objective" persona, but you're doing a poor job of it. I mean, it's either that, or you simply lack empathy, and I'm sure you'll pop off with some quip about how you "pulled yourself up by your bootstraps". Tell you what - let's save some time. You don't bother posting, and instead, go do some reading, or even listen to the audio books - I think you're either arguing in bad faith, or out of your depth here, so I'm just trying to save you keystrokes.
Among other things that others have brought up, you could explore sports like tennis, golf, sailing (as someone else said), horseback riding, etc. if you don't already. Playing tennis and golf really does it for me for whatever reason.
Also, read Class: A Guide Through the American Status System by Paul Fussell. Follow it up with any library books you can find that discuss the western class system in general.
If you're able to, look into joining a country club or some other non-academic private club. I figure the exclusive nature of clubs in and around NYC will make this harder for you than it was for me living in the rural midwest, but if you can make it happen, it's a great way to make friends with similar interests.
Once events start up again, you could also consider going to fund-raiser galas for causes you care about. This isn't specifically a preppy thing, but they are a lot of fun, and it's another good way to meet people.
I was looking up mole children after reading this and there’s a book on it? Apparently Mole book link it was written back in 1993, so either the author is also crazy or its a fiction book that Qpeople are believing for some odd reason
> A question is a denial?
Is a question an accusation?
Obviously there no hard line of where a class starts or ends, probably depending on who you ask...but we could arrive at some consensus...and we can also divide in more than 3 classes although historically it is how it has been described.
For example, we could divide middle class into 2 or 3 categories, such as middle class and upper middle class...a manager could be middle class, while a doctor could be upper middle class...if that interests you, there are books written about it...I recommend Class: A Guide Through the American Status System even as it has aged a bit...
I would heavily recommend Ehrenreich's Nickled and Dimed, https://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681/ref=sr_1_1?crid=O7MLCUZHO02V&dchild=1&keywords=nickled+and+dimed&qid=1607166748&s=books&sprefix=nickled+and+dimed%2Caps%2C187&sr=1-1
Mind you the field work was done 20 years ago, and it has gotten much worse since then.
Hillbilly Elegy
This one.
It's an easy read, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Like all things, it's not perfect, but it does get across the important point of class stratification in the US.
There is a great book called Nickel and Dimed about a reletivly wealthy person living for a while on minimum wage.
She works 3 different minimum wage jobs. It is really an eye opening book.
If anyone is curious about the ins and outs of American class system and how upper classes act , Paul fussels "class: a guide through the American status system"class: a guide through the American status system is the only accurate class depiction in America I've seen. It's a bit outdated but the principles still hold.
Two books that do a more comprehensive analysis in to nature and extent of the problem are:
The Working Poor: Invisible in America by Shipler
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0375708219/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1667202189&sr=8-3
Also, Nickel and Dimed: On not Getting by in America by Ehrenreich
https://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681
I would absolutely go for epi as its a complementary skill set. I'm a mixed methods person and I think there will be much more coming out about that in the coming years.
I was recently recommended this ethnography, where the author eventually did some secondary data analysis to support their ethnographic fieldwork.
I'll agree that Insta killed the blogs. Oxfordcloth Button Down was the best blog for ivy inspo, but now it's just him working out (boy is jacked). Then again how much can you talk about a topic that had it's heyday in 1968? I would kill for someone to find the best articles and put them in one place and call it a day or someone that just has articles regarding factories/manufacturers that still make great products. Though I'm more interested in the secret language of the WASPS after reading Paul Flusser's Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. https://www.amazon.com/Class-Through-American-Status-System/dp/0671792253