Custom «Obstacles Faced by the Low Class in an Attempt to Improve Their Lives in America» Essay Paper

The low class is one of the most important concepts that is extensively used by numerous professionals in the field of sociology, anthropology, and political sciences to describe people who are usually employed in insecure, hard, and low-paying workplaces, have low income and very poor financial security. Members who belong to the working class face many other principal and enormous obstacles that put at risk their physical health and psychosocial well-being. In other words, people living in poverty on the territory of the USA face multiple barriers and challenges that impede their efforts and desire to be happy, experience success and, finally, have abundant educational and economic opportunities. The current paper aims at shedding light on numerous obstacles and limitations faced by low-class people living in the USA. In addition, much attention will be paid to the list of numerous strategies and tactics that may be used by lower-class individuals with the primary purpose to improve the quality of their lives in the USA.

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Researchers who explore the life of the lower classes or, in other words, working classes in the USA provide evidence that the life of this social class is complex and troublesome. Generally speaking, widespread homelessness, chronic poverty, and continued unemployment are three intense and severe pressures that drastically decrease the quality of life of the lower class in this country (Bivens et al., 2014). Scholars who investigate and evaluate the key barriers to overall success of low classes in the USA hypothesize that all these barriers experienced by the low class can be subdivided into two major categories, namely systemic barriers as well as internal obstacles (Morduch & Schneider, 2016). Excessive poverty faced by lower classes in America forces all these individuals to deal with multiple complexities and challenges that are the main consequences of ineffective and irrational structure of the social system. Absence of solid and functional social structures in the U.S. community usually puts members of the lower class into uncomfortable and threatening positions where these individuals see no adequate support from the system and no promising and ambitious opportunities (Morduch & Schneider, 2016). Because individuals included in the lower classes of the American society often believe that nothing changes for better and these barriers will never be eliminated, people living in miserable conditions and deep poverty blame themselves for their uncomfortable and very modest living. Their blame for the failure to have a rich, healthful, peaceful, and harmonious living becomes so internalized that individuals from the lower classes in America suffer from a very poor self-esteem, extinguish their desires and dreams. Finally, they put at risk their opportunities and willingness to improve their lives, develop, and considerably increase their chances for success (Morduch & Schneider, 2016).

To begin with, silence and indifference of the legal authorities as well as poor structure of the social class in America are included into the list of the most threatening and powerful systemic barriers faced by members of lower classes in the USA on their ways to success. In the scientific literature, the abstract concept of “social class” is frequently used as a distinct framework to explore and evaluate existing barriers to the success of these people (Roberts, Povich, & Mather, 2013). When the concept of social class is explored and evaluated on the territory of the USA, it is closely associated with the issues of race as well as racism. Although people from American lower class usually blame themselves and their families for absence of the decent living, they are unable to recognize that without high-quality education, extensive professional experience, profound knowledge, and well-developed skills and competencies, individuals from lower classes will be unable to improve the quality of their life, earn a living wage, and combat their poverty at local, regional and, finally, national levels (Roberts, Povich, & Mather, 2013). Regardless of the fact that many individuals were born in families from the lowers classes that suffered from illiteracy, poverty, and homelessness, these individuals have an opportunity to improve their status, enhance the quality of their lives, and overcome a wide range of adverse poverty-related barriers and limitations. Scholars estimate that addressing poverty is an urgent and threatening societal task that offers a unique opportunity to the official authorities and the public to overcome numerous racial barriers, focus on transparency. It will allow considering all social classes in the USA and combating many other existing barriers that deprive American lower classes of the opportunity to improve the quality of their lives in their native country (Roberts, Povich, & Mather, 2013).

Harmful stereotyping and absence of adequate understanding is another crucially important obstacle that considerably decreases the quality of life and lowers the chances of people from the American lower class to improve their living in the USA. Researchers who explore this complex and ambiguous issue hypothesize that most people living on the territory of the USA, including members from the low class, have no opportunity to obtain sufficient knowledge, learn, and increase their awareness of such complex and interrelated issues as poverty as well as its essence, nature, evolution, causes, and consequences (Roberts, Povich, & Mather, 2013). According to the information provided by the U.S. media that plays a pivotal role in altering, shaping, and transforming attitudes and viewpoints of people, members of the low classes suffer from stereotyping and discrimination as these two factors are major obstacles that deprive them of the opportunity to maximize the quality of their lives and achieve success in their country (Roberts, Povich, & Mather, 2013). According to the information provided in numerous experiments purposed to estimate how people from low classes are usually portrayed in the media, poor individuals are most frequently described as lazy, illiterate, oversexed, indifferent. They are thought to make ineffective and poor decisions that have a negative impact on their personal and professional dimensions of life (Roberts, Povich, & Mather, 2013). Therefore, the results of the credible statistical data emphasize that people from the American low class often fail to make intelligent and meaningful choices because the quality of their education is very poor and. Besides, members of the lower classes have numerous “deficiencies” in their character as well as behavior and morals (Roberts, Povich, & Mather, 2013). At the same time, the results of well-developed and consistent questionnaires with participation of individuals from American lower classes confirm the hypothesis that the voices of people from the low class are very rarely heard and often ignored by the leaders of the country and its legal authorities at the local, regional, and national levels (Roberts, Povich, & Mather, 2013).

In addition, the results of numerous questionnaires with active participation of the low-class members indicate that most individuals who belong to this “underprivileged” class report being criticized, ignored, and even misunderstood by the official authorities that should provide sufficient financial and psychosocial assistance to individuals who are members of the lower class (Ruane & Cerulo, 2012). The leadership of the country as well as many other governing bodies often have either little or no adequate understanding of what it means to be a member of the American lower class that daily faces numerous obstacles, including extreme poverty, lack of support, and continuous discrimination. In addition, many scholars adhere to the idea that legal authorities in the USA fail to explore, analyze, and evaluate all available resources, including families, housing affordability, and access of individuals from the low class to numerous credits and loans as these methods and strategies may improve the quality of life of people from lower classes, increase their chances for success, and assist these people in alleviating poverty (Ruane & Cerulo, 2012).

The role of isolation and absence of adequate social mobility are two additional obstacles faced by people from lower classes on their way to success and better quality of life (Ruane & Cerulo, 2012). Regardless of the common belief that the contemporary society consists of equal classes where all individuals have an opportunity to live more freely, utilize all available chances and tools, and do what they want, the reality of the present days reveals the truth that modern American society is subdivided into privileged and underprivileged classes of people who live in isolation, have no chances to interact and develop, are limited in their opportunities for high-quality education and well-paid job, and have no way to escape poverty (Ruane & Cerulo, 2012). One of the recent research studies focusing on members of the low class provides convincing evidence that individuals who belong to the lower classes in the American society have limited opportunities to interact and collaborate with many other individuals who belong to more “privileged” classes, including middle and upper classes of the U.S. society. Statistics indicates that persons living in low-class conditions mostly always interact and communicate with individuals who live in situations and conditions that resemble their own living standards (Ruane & Cerulo, 2012).

Moreover, the results of the recent survey reveal that members of the lowers classes in the USA often feel that because they are poor and have limited opportunities, they do not “fit” other groups, families, and communities in the USA because they do not believe that they will have an opportunity to eat  high quality and healthy food, wear fashionable and more comfortable clothing, purchase new and safer cars and, finally, live in spacious and furnished houses that drastically differ from their present homes (Bivens et al., 2014). Thus, researchers who examine and evaluate multiple obstacles faced by lower classes in the U.S. community that decrease the chances of these people for success assure that inadequate and insufficient understanding of the concept of poverty, poor nature of social classes, absence of adequate governmental support, stereotyping, social isolation, and limited social mobility of lower classes in America are the most significant problems that deprive people from lower classes of the chance to enhance the quality of their lives (Bivens et al., 2014).

Researchers predict that housing, affordable medical care, car, taxes and, finally, vacation are included into the list of core obstacles and limitations that differ members of the lower class from middle as well as upper classes of the American society (Ruane & Cerulo, 2012). Owning a home is recognized as an unattainable dream for the majority of individuals from the lower classes in America. In addition, health security is the second important limitation that differs the lower classes in the USA from the middle and upper classes (Ruane & Cerulo, 2012). In the absence of permanent and comprehensive health insurance, it is almost impossible for individuals and families that belong to lower classes who have faced life-threatening illnesses to increase the quality of their life and enjoy numerous privileges and other useful elements that are typical for the lifestyle of middle and upper classes. Although car is not understood as something usual in the contemporary environment, members of the lower classes in America have no opportunity to purchase a car that may considerably improve the quality of life of these populations. Finally, members of the lower class are often unable to pursue and achieve their aspirations because these individuals do not possess sufficient amount of resources to save for retirement, cope with taxes, and even save certain sums of money for vacations with their families (Ruane & Cerulo, 2012).

Researchers provide convincing evidence that although intelligent planning and saving are critically important, these strategies are insufficient and probably will not assist people from the lower class to maximize the quality of their lives in the USA. Unfortunately, most families from the lower class fail to eliminate multiple obstacles being unable to achieve their dream to improve the quality of their life because the government of the country is not interested in providing long-term stability for thousands of American families that represent the lower class (Bivens et al., 2014). In order to assist the lower class in coping with numerous stressors and improving their lives on the territory of America, the national government of the country should create a stable and powerful economy, facilitate the development of a strong and responsible private sector that may offer abundance of well-paid jobs, and expand access of lower classes to decent education and high-quality medicine (Bivens et al., 2014). Moreover, the U.S. government is encouraged to assist the lower class in combating many other obstacles and challenges directly associated with falling incomes, increasing costs, poor standards of living, and severe housing crisis as problems and challenges of American citizens are America’s problems and challenges (Bivens et al., 2014). For instance, taking into account the official report issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, lower classes of the American society hold the most unstable, unsafe, and low-paid jobs, face the most severe health constraints, are less likely to obtain high quality education, have limited opportunities to participate in numerous welfare programs in order to improve their life, and face dozens of additional obstacles and hurdles in combating poverty (Bivens et al., 2014).

In conclusion, members of the lower classes in America have limited efforts to eliminate poverty and experience success in their native country because their opportunities are insufficient. Members of the lower class in the USA are currently in serious trouble that considerably decreases their chance for healthy living, personal growth, and professional development as the inability to get high-quality education, poor access to effective healthcare services, extreme poverty, inability to move forward to shift to another social classes, lack of understanding and support, absence of housing, comparatively low lending rates, poor saving habits, and social isolation are the most common and devastating limitations and obstacles that arise on their way to success. Although members of lower classes should improve their saving skills, stop criticizing themselves, and be more persistent, the U.S. government should take immediate actions and implement meaningful policies in order to recognize the existence of the low class in America, objectively assess their real-life problems, and provide them with the necessary tools and resources to grow, develop, improve, and succeed.