The Fallacy of the Middle-Class: Overcoming Social Resentment (IX). How does the Middle-Class live?
Wishing you a beautiful beginning to the week. This saga´s purpose is conceived to trying to build blocks of knowledge, reflections, and some kind of understanding in relation to the Middle-Class all over the world. If you have been reading to me, by now I am sure you are digesting that our generation X (those who are between 45 to 59 years old) will have a huge task to do, once the Baby-Boomers really really pass the baton to us (until today, Generation X has not had the lead, but Baby-boomers have been commanding in reality). Generation X will be in charge to review and to correct mental paradigms, check reality with an integral and contextual approach, and we will stop many extremists’ ideas about technologies, and the usage of digital on-line models that will cause more social inequality. Just to review and correct paradigms will be a colossal task. Disregarding misconceptions of “popular knowledge that are not making us better human beings” will take all our energies and this blog is a sample of it. In consequence, the future president of the United States of America, Mr. Joe Biden, as a Baby-boomer, will be probably the last one from the Baby-boomers, and by 2025, I hope that generation X will begin its roadmap (without the guidance of the Baby-boomers) to lead the world for the next 20 years. Incredible. Each generation has a role in the universe, and ours is just starting.
Last week I wrote about the most simple cognitive map that we can grasp for the middle class: a strip map of “givens-means-ends”. I can´t make it more complex because the middle-class is so ample and it has so many life-styles, household patterns, educational groups, socio-cultural views, behaviors, and attributes; that I can´t proceed with more complex analysis for this saga. But the basics are always helpful and we can generalize with them.
For the time being, it is realistic to think that we have inherited a cognitive map, a very straightforward route, of givens-means-ends, which are a graphic representation that provides a frame of reference for the Middle-class to do what they do during their lifetime. Please acknowledge that all the givens, means and ends, that I explained to you last week are of “popular knowledge”. I probably do not agree with some of them, but I have tried to respect what my middle-class peers consider or assume when they see themselves as middle-class citizens. Eleonora Escalante Strategy reflections will come later, once I finish to set up the table of learning for you.
Today´s topic is about How the Middle-Class live? In particular, I will explain with the Salvadoran low-middle class family composed of 5 members, in which only one adult is the economic provider. This family lives as a typical Low Middle-Class one in town, with US$2,400 dollars per month (gross), or US$1,680 dollars per month (net) after income taxes, public health insurance, and pension retentions. I picked up this example because the annual gross income for this household (US$28,800) coincides with the median low-income class in the United States.
I encourage you to read the following slides, please. More than anything, please print them and make notes. Try to calculate all the numbers on your own for your own family situation, make your budget 50/30/20, and with receipts or bills in hand, put your exact numbers per category (needs, wants and savings). Just then, you will be able to understand what I am talking about.
Click here to download this latter document in PDF format:
Your homework is to read and do your own 50/30/20 budget. We will continue on Friday, with the sources of funds of the Middle-Class and with the wrap-up case for this material.
Thank you for reading to me.
Sources of Reference will be provided at the end of the week.
Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
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