Class in America

I'm new to financial blogging (I guess that's what I'm doing), and am still looking around at a lot of different blogs. Yesterday I found The Financial Ladder and John's post on Social Class (that points to this special section on the New York Times website).

I couldn't find my exact job on the list so I used Geoscientist (which is close) and again with Computer Programmer (which is what I used to do). I scored around the 80th percentile. But more important than the silly test was the survey results on class in America.

Over half of the respondents thought that they had little or no chance to become wealthy. Over half! To me that is depressing. One of the great things about our country is (or maybe was) that everyone had a chance to become whatever they wanted, or at least had a shot at it. Whatever you may think of Bill Clinton, for example, you have to admit that his story is one of overcoming the odds and achieving success.

To be resigned to staying in a lower class must be a sad state. I came from a solidly middle class background, but 25 years ago I was an unemployed college dropout Army veteran with a new wife and a baby on the way. We could barely afford rent, so saving anything seemed hopeless.

But I found a job (having some college and Army training helped of course), and things got better. Our marriage did end some years later, but by that time we had a decent house and had started saving for retirement. All our neighbors were working hard to not just survive but to better themselves. Almost all dreamed of an even better life than they had at the time and felt it was achievable.

So what has changed? I believe it is our appetite for things, our rampant consumerism. I know 20 year olds working in food service that have big screen TVs and high end gaming rigs. They are spending money they haven't made yet, in effect mortgaging their future earnings on consumer goods that will wear out long before the debt is gone.

And it's not just young folks that do this. I have friends that are close to my age and are having to sell their house because they can no longer afford to make payments on it plus their other debts. These are not people who work in food service either, but well paid technical professionals.

As a nation, our spending is out of control, and it seems that the biggest casualty is hope for the future.