*Introduction to Social Classes within our Society*

Well, here goes my first informative blog post ever! Welcome everyone, to the interesting, controversial, ever-changing world of understanding and classifying the social classes within our society. To start off with a brief explanation, social class refers to a group of people with similar levels of wealth, influence, and status.

Today, we see 4 distinct social classes: The lower class, the working class, the middle class, and the upper class.

The lower class includes those living in poverty, dealing with unemployment and abusing the system by taking advantage of welfare. Very few members of this class have finished high school, live in adequate conditions, or have medical care.

The working class, also referred to as blue collar workers, are underpaid, unskilled workers who make a small living. 

The middle class are divided into two levels according to wealth: the lower middle class and the upper middle class. These people usually have highly respected jobs and ways of living.

The upper class is compromised of the wealthiest people in society. These people make up only about 1-3% of the United States population. Usually they either make grandiose business ventures to earn their wealth, or inherit it from their extremely wealthy families. They have usually have a great deal of influence, and sometimes power, over society.

Now that you well-informed idea about different social classes, you can read this interesting article that shows that the current economic crisis' effects are completely redefining social classes. The article shows how the middle class is rapidly shrinking as unemployment remains at a high 8.1%. It even, interestingly enough, brings up the relevance of race in social classes. 

Thanks for reading this week's blog post, everyone! And as promised, I leave you with a funny, yet informative, political cartoon of the week. 

- Grace 

Sources: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2012/09/11/americas-middle-class-shrinks-further-now-blacks-and-whites-equally-broke/

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Types-of-Social-Classes-of-People.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26880.html

http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/o/B/2/rich-vs-middle-class.jpg