Decease of the Middle Class

1511 Words7 Pages
The Decease of the Middle Class It is before our very eyes and in these recent years that, today, we are at the brink of the extinction of a class of society which we would have least predicted to be endangered, the middle class. Throughout history there were three societal classes, the rich; who had a lot more than they required for their survival; the middle class, who were surviving rather comfortably; and the poor, who were struggling towards survival. Today these distinctions are fading away at an alarming rate. The rich are acquiring more and more while the poor are barely able to cling on to what they have. Different people see this growing problem through different lenses and correlate different reasons to it. Yet it is clear that factors of globalization such as outsourcing, neo-liberalism and fast paced technology are fueling the ever-widening gap between the poor and the rich. One of Globalizations main factors which have aided the formation of a global economy is outsourcing. Outsourcing is basically cutting the middle-man and getting to the source, in order to reduce costs whilst maximizing profits. Companies which have been successfully able to outsource its goods all the way to countries across the globe with much cheaper labor and commodities have done astronomically well. A perfect example is Wal-Mart, a company which because of its smart outsourcing techniques has done extremely well, and is now ranked as the world’s 22nd largest economy (http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0219/p01s04-usec.html). Wal-Mart has been able to Outsourcing has led to the abolition of a national or sovereign labor force, and has exposed us to a rather cutthroat global workforce. American citizens are not only competing with immigrants from all around the world in the US, but are also competing with people in developing countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and
Open Document