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Edward Mcclelland Analysis

562 Words3 Pages

Edward McClelland is a journalist and the author of several books. In this particular article Mr. McClelland explores the decline of the middle-class. McClelland remembers the 1970’s as an era of blue-collar aristocrats and “The Decade That Taste Forgot” (550). “Although this all began to change in the 80’s” (550). “I know I am dating myself by writing this, but I remember a middle class.” (549) McClelland tells us of a time when a high school dropout could get a job and earn more money than a high school teacher (549). He remembers looking at his neighbor’s vehicles, houses, and possessions and seeing “evidence of prosperity distributed equally among social classes (550). During the 1970’s, middle class individuals were able to buy many …show more content…

These statistics give the impression that the modern labor movement didn’t happen at all. He tells a story of a young couple who began working during “the Golden Age of middle-class employment” (551). The couple met working in a factory with the mindset that they would have lifelong jobs. They lived during an era where you could fill out a job application and have an interview within the same day. Thinking they would both have a sustainable job for their future they dropped out of Syracuse University to work in the factory. Unbeknownst to them the company would “move the last few of it’s manufacturing operations to Singapore” (552). This left the young couple jobless. Living off of Social Security and Medicare required the couple to acquire more training, in turn landing them new jobs that were unfortunately lower paying than those at the factory. These hardships were a repercussion of a failing government. McClelland goes on to explain that Richard Nixon was the last president who had plans to protect American workers. McClelland believes that “if Nixon would have survived Watergate he might have set the nation on a course that emphasized government regulation of the economy” (555). McClelland goes on to address the disadvantageous effects that presidents after Nixon had on the middle

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