Middle Class Shrink and Immigrants Will Take Over!

Jaynil Patel

ENGL 1011-02

Dr. Michelle Maher

17th February 2016

Middle class shrink and immigrants will take over!

In an economy the middle class represents the majority of people and hold the largest share of wealth combined. In America, however the middle class has been the minority and is shrinking where a great portion has shrunk to the lower class. The richer percent of the population despite being a small number in the present time hold most of the power and more wealth than the middle class and lower class combines which was once held by the middle class. Immigrants have contribute to the economy at a certain percent but also caused harm to the country. Over the years the number of immigrants have greatly increased making American a target as their land of opportunity and success.

              However is this true? The two most captivating articles I got a hold of was McClelland’s article, “RIP, the Middle Class” which gives a vision of the recent questions of the shrinking middle class. I similarly found an article which I did not absolutely harmonize with what he states in his article “Bring on More Immigrant Entrepreneurs” by Shayan Zadeh from the book They Say / I Say with Readings 3E by Graff, Birkenstien and Durst.

How certain is that immigrants will bring benefits to the people of the nation and specifically the middle class which is shrinking over the recent years. The article “Bring on More Immigrant Entrepreneurs” comments on the benefits of allowing immigrants to set up businesses but recent statistics show this assumption has become a topic of debate where the disadvantages are more than the advantages. McClelland in “RIP, the Middle Class” explains how the middle class portion has decreased over time which currently defines the present middle class standing in America. I comply with McClelland argument about the vanishing middle class due to his text that supports the argument.

McClelland mentions in his article the people to blame for the shrinking middleclass. McClelland states: ‘The shrinking of the middle class is not a failure of capitalism. It’s a failure of government. Capitalism has been doing exactly what it was designed to do: concentrating wealth in the ownership class, while providing the mass workers with just enough wages to feed, house and clothe themselves’ (553). He argues that capitalism is not to blame for the shrinking middle class especially those who eventually move to the lower class. He mention that capitalism is where the rich benefit and the working class have the basic amenities that are adequate for survival. He further writes the people to blame is the government that did not support the shrinking class and create equality to prevent widening the gap between the upper class and the shrinking middle class. He supports his statement by saying ‘That’s the natural drift of the relationship between the capital and labor, and it can only be arrested by an activist government that chooses to step in as a referee’ (553).