Understanding the Ease of Attaining Middle Class Status

The Importance of Middle Class Security

For social and economic renewal, it is crucial to make it easy for anyone who is willing to adopt the values and habits of "thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work" to ascend to middle class security. The middle class is the ultimate source of social stability, innovation, and democracy, making it a key question to understand how easy it is to climb the social mobility ladder into this class.

The Rise of the Middle Class in Europe

The rise of the middle class in Europe and the market economy that enabled this rise is a good starting point to answer this question. The article explores the specific cultural adaptations that paved the way for Europe's adoption of a market economy as the primary social-economic force, replacing family and feudal ties.

Key Factors in Europe's Economic Expansion

It is noted that Northern European economic expansion began in the 1300s, before the Protestant Reformation, the discovery of the Americas, and before the printing press - all factors others have identified as key to Europe's rise to dominance. The assimilation by Catholic Europe of two Northern European cultural traits - individualism and the ban on cousin marriages, which led to social trust extending beyond the immediate family, were identified as critical preconditions for the acceptance of a market economy. A third condition was added: the suppression or elimination of violent males from the social order via harsh secular and religious punishment of wrongdoers. Murder rates declined as the most violent were executed or imprisoned in large numbers.

The Role of Trust in Prosperous Societies

Modern-day surveys find that Scandinavian people tend to have high levels of trust in strangers, and this correlates to high levels of general prosperity and individual happiness. Clearly, economies in which business is only conducted with family members or equally narrow circles is far more limiting than economies in which business is conducted with strangers and impersonal corporations.

The Impact of Social Capital

As people acquired means, they could afford more education, and they had a stake in the system that needed to be defended or advocated. This advocacy nurtured democratic or legal institutions and a free press. These institutional forms of social capital act as social technologies, enabling and nurturing the rise of markets, ownership of land and enterprises, and the middle class.

The Key to Middle Class Rise

In my view, the key factor that determines the rise of a middle class is the relative ease of laborers achieving middle class ownership, security, and stability. In the classical Roman era, freed slaves often ended up doing very well for themselves and becoming middle class, as the class boundaries were porous enough to enable craftworkers and small merchants to improve their lot in life.

The Role of "Thrift, Prudence, Negotiation, and Hard Work"

If "thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work" are enough to transform a family from penury to middle class, then the ladder to middle class security is open to anyone who adopts these values or habits. If the answer is "no," then the ladder to middle class security is not open to everyone, and the economy stagnates.

The Impact of Financialization and Globalization

Once financialization and globalization rose to dominance and distorted the economy with increasing wealth and income inequality ("winner take most"), this was no longer the case. Workers of average skill, motivation, and wages who adopt "thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work" can no longer afford a family or a stake in the system - at least in high-cost, enormously unequal locales. This is true not just of the U.S. but globally.

The Consequences of Inequality

This reality has fueled two trends of decay: 1) a dependence on speculation as the only means to "get ahead" and 2) "laying flat" or "let it rot"--giving up on marrying, having a family, and acquiring a stake in the system. Once these aspirations are only available to those with the right connections or extraordinary drive or talent, society and the economy decay and collapse under the weight of inequality - an inequality defended by those who made it to the top and want to preserve the status quo as it is.

The Importance of Trust

Trust matters, too. A middle class can only thrive if the institutions enabling social technologies are trustworthy, and others in the markets of labor, capital, goods, services, and risk are trustworthy. Once social trust is lost, the foundations of society and the economy crumble.

Bottom Line

The ease of climbing the social mobility ladder into the middle class is a complex issue with many facets. It is clear that certain values and habits, such as "thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work", play a significant role. However, the impact of financialization, globalization, and inequality cannot be overlooked. Trust, both in institutions and in individuals, is also a key factor. It raises the question: how can we ensure that the ladder to middle class security remains open to everyone? What changes need to be made to our current systems to achieve this? Share your thoughts and this article with your friends.

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