The quote, “Britain is a nation divided by class whereas the US continues to be a classless society” is only partially true; both Great Britain (GB) and the United States of America (USA) are divided by social classes. However, at one point in time, roughly about the late 1900’s, the quote was highly debatable. The United States of America and other countries thought that there was little class differentiation in the USA and the social class system consisted mostly of the middle class. Michael Zweig’s “The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret,” published in 2000, is a great example of why it was a controversy and how class systems existed in the USA even then. If there was not a myth surrounding America’s social classes, there would be no need for a book and countless others, debating class systems in United States and comparing it with Great Britain’s. Classes among Great Britain and the United States have both changed greatly, even since the early 2000’s. Today, GB and USA have a very similar class system or social class structure. The two countries hold such strong similarities. Books and articles are written in abundance comparing and contrasting their social class structures. Even in 1997 and earlier, Great Britain and US had similar class systems. “The overwhelming evidence from both nations indicates that America is not a classless society and Britain is not a class-bound society,” (Fiona 257), if either of the countries were a classless society then there would not be such large gaps amongst people, such as there were then and are now.
…show more content…
Statistics from 1988 show that in both countries the proletariate, otherwise known as the working class or middle class, were the largest group, containing about 42% of the population, 62% if semi credential workers are included. Whereas the bourgeoisie, also known as the wealthy, were 1.8% of the population in America, which is now known as the 1%, and the 2% in Great Britain (Fiona 22). Great Britain and USA have such similar class structures because they both experienced an Industrial Boom around the same time and occupational change in the economic sphere due to that boom, followed by a decline in manufacturing and a growing need for low level, service jobs. In both countries, this meant there was a decline in working class and a rise in the middle class, which by definition covers a large range of people in various socio-economic statuses and pay levels (Fiona 258). Articles, “Building a Better America — One Wealth Quintile at a Time,” which concentrates on USA, and “Focus: The Distribution Wealth: What We Think and How It is,” which focuses on Great Britain, shows a more recent economic breakdown of classes. Both articles show how the population perceives the wealth division to be, how it should be otherwise what is ideal, and explains the truth. People agree that not everybody should have the same amount of wealth, hence a democracy. They also know there is a divide between the poorest people and the richest people that does not look like it should, but they do not know how great the divide is and what the economic break down of wealth actually looks like. These figures are significantly similar between Great Britain and the United States despite having been two different studies and population samples from each representative country. The article covering Britain’s breakdowns of wealth does so through fifths: On average [the representative population, in the study] thought that the wealthiest fifth ought to have about a third of the total, but the poorest only 13 per cent, and the others something in between. But they did not think it was really like that. They thought the bottom tenth probably only had 10 per cent of the total and the top tenth nearly four times as much. (Focus) This study was conducted in September of 2013 by the University of Birmingham Wealth Commission, that is just over a year ago and there has been coverage in the past several years on how unequal society is. People have been exposed to the great divide prior to when the study was conducted so it can be assumed participants were not naive about the economy.
Statistics from 1988 show that in both countries the proletariate, otherwise known as the working class or middle class, were the largest group, containing about 42% of the population, 62% if semi credential workers are included. Whereas the bourgeoisie, also known as the wealthy, were 1.8% of the population in America, which is now known as the 1%, and the 2% in Great Britain (Fiona 22). Great Britain and USA have such similar class structures because they both experienced an Industrial Boom around the same time and occupational change in the economic sphere due to that boom, followed by a decline in manufacturing and a growing need for low level, service jobs. In both countries, this meant there was a decline in working class and a rise in the middle class, which by definition covers a large range of people in various socio-economic statuses and pay levels (Fiona 258). Articles, “Building a Better America — One Wealth Quintile at a Time,” which concentrates on USA, and “Focus: The Distribution Wealth: What We Think and How It is,” which focuses on Great Britain, shows a more recent economic breakdown of classes. Both articles show how the population perceives the wealth division to be, how it should be otherwise what is ideal, and explains the truth. People agree that not everybody should have the same amount of wealth, hence a democracy. They also know there is a divide between the poorest people and the richest people that does not look like it should, but they do not know how great the divide is and what the economic break down of wealth actually looks like. These figures are significantly similar between Great Britain and the United States despite having been two different studies and population samples from each representative country. The article covering Britain’s breakdowns of wealth does so through fifths: On average [the representative population, in the study] thought that the wealthiest fifth ought to have about a third of the total, but the poorest only 13 per cent, and the others something in between. But they did not think it was really like that. They thought the bottom tenth probably only had 10 per cent of the total and the top tenth nearly four times as much. (Focus) This study was conducted in September of 2013 by the University of Birmingham Wealth Commission, that is just over a year ago and there has been coverage in the past several years on how unequal society is. People have been exposed to the great divide prior to when the study was conducted so it can be assumed participants were not naive about the economy.