Class Matters (due Tue., Oct. 18)

[SlipperyJack]

First of all I want to bring up a slight issue that I had with part of BrassMonkey’s statement: “The idea behind this principle is that people with more money can pay for better services than the masses. In turn, those services are more expensive because their are frequently fewer of them available and in order to make a larger profit the service providers need to charge more money.” Demand and availability are certainly factors in the cost of certain medical procedures. You also have to address the fact that heart surgery is very complex and dangerous. It requires extremely well trained surgeons as well as a lot of more complex equipment than needed for many other surgeries. The actual cost to perform heart surgery probably costs more than various other kinds of surgeries. Sorry, this was just something that crossed my mind and I wanted to bring up…

I especially agreed with almosteris’ post on every point. I feel that there should be national healthcare. Free and equal healthcare for every American citizen provided by the government. Under no circumstance should someone’s life or health be on the line because of lack of funding. In this day and age we actually have to literally pay for life.

I would love to see a SUCESSFUL society in which each person had all necessary needs provided for- food, housing, healthcare, education, etc. That would never happen in a capitalist government, but when looking at other communist or socialist governments I realize that every form of government certainly has its major faults. The simple fact of the matter is that no system of government will ever truly work for one reason: were human. I do feel that overall our government has proven to be fairly successful, though there are still many things to be fixed.

One of the major roots to the whole class problem is education. Like healthcare, education is provided based on wealth. This is not only unfair to all of those people that could be great, if they were simply given the chance, but it also adds to the downward spiral in our society that causes the giant class separation. If all schools (from kindergarten to university) in America had the same high standards (for teachers and students), and all received sufficient funding (enough to provide higher salaries for teachers, therefore bringing in many more good teachers, and also extra money for sports teams, clubs, etc.), then someone who came from a family that couldn’t keep bread on the table could easily end up with a better job/life that someone born with silver spoon in hand. This would give everyone an equal chance, and help break down the class structure. In addition, if everyone were properly educated, then there wouldn’t be hardly as many health issues as seen in Gora’s case. Education is key.

[Dar1128]

This is a hard question because I think a lot of what we can do has been brought up before in our society, but for whatever reason has yet to be used. For example, if everyone has universal healthcare, people would all get the same benefits regardless of class. Hospitals should also be equipped with certain necessary items or procedures. Heart attacks are pretty common and I don’t think anyone should have to go to specific hospitals to get adequate treatment of it. Time is key in stituations like that and it would be a shame if someone died just because their hospital didn’t have what was needed to keep the person alive.

Health information and many types of resources in general should be made readily accessible to the public so both rich and poor are knowledgeable about what they can do to stay healthy, or where they can go to receive certain forms of help, medical or not. Ms. Gora didn’t know what to eat for her diet and with more information on what types of food are healthy and will help her heart condition, she wouldn’t have necessarily gained weight and complicated her health.

Just as many other posts stated, class can’t be eliminated, but the government can try hard to make necessary things, like healthcare, available to all and try to make things as fair as possible for everyone, not just those who are wealthy.

[BrassMonkey]

Response to:
"First of all I want to bring up a slight issue that I had with part of BrassMonkey’s statement: “The idea behind this principle is that people with more money can pay for better services than the masses. In turn, those services are more expensive because their are frequently fewer of them available and in order to make a larger profit the service providers need to charge more money.” Demand and availability are certainly factors in the cost of certain medical procedures. You also have to address the fact that heart surgery is very complex and dangerous. It requires extremely well trained surgeons as well as a lot of more complex equipment than needed for many other surgeries. The actual cost to perform heart surgery probably costs more than various other kinds of surgeries."

I did not think of that, but you bring up a good point. The procedures are indeed dangerous and very costly. My point, however, was in more general terms, not necessarily relating to the specific procedure you are describing.

Still, I do not think that people with less money could afford these expensive procedures. Wealthier people have the option of doing the more complex surgeries, despite their dangers, simply because they have more resources (time and money) to spend on them.

[darkroom]

Class-based injustices exist in many forms but most of the time people fail to recognize them or if they do, they take no action. Even if they want to, what action can they take? As everyone had said, racism is merely a mentality and so can be changed; classism is a fact, which can’t be changed within a day or two. What is sad about classism is not about richer people looking down on poorer people but about how much poor people have to suffer because of the lack of money and resources. As a society, the first thing we should to solve the problem is to expose the reality and raise awareness among people of all classes. People at the top need to know that there are people who are suffering while they are living a fulfilled lavish life. On the other hand, people at the bottom need to realize that they, as human being and as citizen of a nation, deserve to be treated equally. Awareness will lead to moral thinking and moral thinking will lead to action. The voice of people is powerful. That voice can pressure the government to do something. In this situation it would be improving health care system so that less privilege people can have access to it.
There is a tie between class and health care. First of all, people at the bottom aren’t likely to be able to afford health insurance. Secondly, they don’t have enough resource and access to file for health care request. Most of them are probably working day and night too busied to even care about their health. Thirdly, these people less educated and don’t have as much connections as richer people. Lack of education undermines their knowledge about health care and heath issue. These people need help from both the government and social organization. The government should really outreach to them, inform them, and offer them more help and benefits. Class is a historical cycle, which can be break if the government focuses on children who come from low-income family. If these children receive better education and equal opportunities as other rich children

[frownbeat]

Of course, there will always be social clases because everyone will always have different incomes unless we become a communist country, which I'm certain won't happen, but that doesn't mean that some classes should more priviledges. The priviledge of heathcare is not one that is easy to pay for, but it doesn't have to be so expensive. Our neighbors-up-north, Canada, generously and humanely gives healthcare to those who need it for free. This doesn't screw up Canada's internal systems or anything, they get along just fine without asking for money for heathcare. if we're in bad condition, we don't deserve to have to pay in order to keep ourselves alive.

I, for one, agree with a flat tax because it would make equivelent dents in everyone's income which seems to make sense to me (I even asked my parents about it and they said that they agreed too). Now, the government can decide to give a tax break to whomever they want. If everyone payed the same percentage it would seem fair to me.

I think that classism really only stands out in adults because kids my age don't often discuss their parents income, nor is it a teenagers fault for being in a lower class, they were given that "disadvantage" by their parents. At the same time, those same kids born into a lower class will have a more difficult task of rise above the class from which they originated.

I found the movie to be incredibly charming and a poignant snapshot of the views of adults today, even though the movie was so obviously made in the late 80's. It showed the racism in classism; how people will think that a black person might have less money and that that same person is likely to steal or cause harm. Great short film. Thank you, Ms. Freeman!

[bozedthinker125]

I definitely agree with what many of my classmates have been saying - let's all model oursleves after Canada - health care and education for all. If they can do it we can too!

I was very deeply saddened by the article about the three different class persons and the result of what happened to them because of the class they are in. It's so sad because it is such a true thing. If Ms. Gora had better health care, and was less concerned about having to pay for her bills then she would have recieved better care (maybe the upgrade in class would lead to an upgrade in the EMT's opinion of her...). I feel like I'm a broken record in saying this: class is a major factor in our lives today. If not for class what would America be? We're a country built on money and the passing of it from the big man to the little man - I'd like to point out however that despite the unchangeable categories people are put in, people slip in and out of them everyday. We class jump likec razy compared to some oter countries - consider the people who make Vermont Teddy Bears: a cute old couple who decided to just start making teddy bears, but then realized EVERYONE wanted them, so they made a business out of it. They created a million dollar enterprise because of the high demand for bears.
We have ways of losing and gaining money every day - and lets face it, what would America be without money?

I don't know of any short or long term solutions to classism, maybe if we did actually beome a communist country? I guess because classism is still a hush-hush topic (unlike racism which we have learned to face head on) and people are embarassed to admit where they fit into the system that it makes everyone too uncomfortable. Plus - maybe the fact that because class is a matter of money, and people have "control" over money, we're supposed to be able to fix our class if we don't like it, unlike race which you're just kinda stuck with.

[bubbles]

Class is such a hard issue to discuss about. Without class, we would be a Communist society and I think we all agreed that we don’t want that. What the article addressed was extremely enraging and utterly horrible. Each and every human life should be treated the same, regardless of class. However, sadly, class is put into the factor of who gets first priority.

Our social class today is separated mainly into three groups: poor/lower class, middle class, and upper class. The largest class in our society is the middle class. I believe even if we just took class out of the equation and made everyone have the exact amount of set income and money, there would still be distinctions made between one person from the other. It’s just how each and every single one of us works; we make judgments and classify things into categories we make up.

Regarding the issue of health care, like many others have said above me, we should make an effort to get everyone health care. If the health and well-being of our citizens aren’t the first priority, then what is? Who gets their hands on the latest technology? No. I think class can never be destroyed, at least as long as we don’t want to be Communist. Class will always remain in the factor. That’s what living in America is all about… the American Dream right? Everyone is given the opportunity to go up the social ladder and there are ways to accomplish that in America.

[Zhen]

Class is a hard topic to discuss in the society today. People have different opinions about the states. People devided it as three classes. lower class, middle class and upper class. Those ideas are depend on the education and money. This concept is from long time ago, it passes amount of time. Untill today. People still regard as a correct method to judge things. This made life becomes harder. There is one way to get rid of the concept. Treat people equally. Which is from their parents. The parents should not teach their children to judge people according to the money.
Health care is connects with the class. It ties with money. I think its not fair. Because the upper class people getting better. The lower class people getting worse. From another side. The government also does not do a good model. It does not give a good opportunity to the lower class. It means the government dose not balance the difference.
Overall, the key are --education and money. The two factors could change people's life today.

[youngone617]

I think class is a anturally occurring phenomena, that can't and even shouldn't be helped. The only way to completely get rid of class would be to have a perfect communist eutopian society, and because this society will never be, class will always be.

Although class can't and shouldn't be helped (taken away), somethings that are unfortunately connected to class need to be addressed. Health care is one of them. Unfortunately health care is greatly tied into class; those in higher class ranks recieve the best health care, while those in lower classes recieve poorer health care. I think health care should be provided for everyone, and not mediocre health care, excellent care which would of corse include strong health education.

Tis true we will never be a classless society, which was acknowledged by most of my peers in their posts, but there must be things that can be done to positively affect the institution of class in America. People will never be equal, because people will never be the same; but i think people should be faced with eqaul opportunities. Education is a big part of that; if people as a whole are given excellent education, and helped to become intelectual and even philosophical individuals then class will in turn become a less negative thing. Opportunity, especially in education, is key in helping to deal with class in equality.

[Brouhaha]

First of all class will always exist and to some extent I think it should exist. There will not be equality because not everyone does the same thing in society. People should be rewarded for what they do and they should be in a high class. In order for people to be rewarded there are people that are not rewarded, hence a lower class.

Equality is a great thing worth striving for. Communism was an amazing idea worth trying out. However, communism failed. People do not want to be equal. People want to be assured that they are better than others. We each have our own self-interest, which is part of human nature, and we can’t stop it. Communism failed because people received the same amount of input but produced different amounts of output. People need to be rewarded for what they do and people need to be allowed to improve themselves.

It is true some people work harder than others. However it is not the only indicator of what class you are in. Some people in lower classes work extremely hard every day. People are born into a class and it is much more difficult to change classes than to remain in the same one. A solution would be to give everyone an equal opportunity to change class. The lower class needs to have the same opportunities as the high class. They cannot have everything, but there should be some staples. Healthcare and education should be universal. And I’m talking quality and free healthcare and education. It should be a right. This would at least enable people to change classes because they are educated and don’t have to worry about healthcare.

One problem is what about the kids that have to work to survive and can’t even go to school. The government and the people need to pick these people up. Everyone has the right to education. At the same time if the government continually helped people, people would abuse the help. Class is impossible to eliminate. People should be able to change classes, and class will always exist.

Pleas raise taxes.

[piefrog]

It’s very sad but very true, in order for there to be a higher class there must be a lower one. Classes have been around for ages and there is almost no way for them to be destroyed. But classes aren’t all bad. If it weren’t for classes, people wouldn’t have anything to strive for. Who’s gonna want to fight to be just like everyone, who’s gonna work an extra three hours after everyone else leaves to get paid the same, who is going to strive to make a better product if he’s going to get the same profit the other guy makes. The truth is that classes give us meaning and give us a chance to rise above and beyond what we started with. They give us a sense of meaning and they show us what we can be one day.
I do have a problem with classes though. All classes should be given equal chance for healthcare and schooling. A nation wide healthcare plan that would give both the rich and the poor, the absolutely same chance for a healthy life regardless of how much money they made. The entire hospital system should be run by the government and a freaking band-aid in a hospital should not cost $22. The problem is that lower hospitals are inadequately staffed, funded, and cared about and that needs to change drastically before any other process can be made in bridging the gap between classes.