Reflective Post Week 11

What is wealth? Am I wealthy? Is wealth security? These were all questions that arose in Thursday’s World Politics class. A very interesting and controversial topic, the idea of personal wealth is usually not an everyday conversation one tends to have with people. All throughout my life, wealth was seen as a personal issue. (One not discussed with people besides their family) No one really discussed their wealth. Growing up, my friends and I were all in the same “class”. So wealth was not really something we needed to discuss. We could all usually afford the same things, so no one ever felt left out because of their family’s income. So we never really had to discuss the idea of wealth.

Wealth defined for me is probably around the same definition we talked about in class. So wealth basically having able to choose what you want to spend your money on, as opposed to being forced into one option. I really liked the idea Aubrey brought up in class. That one idea around wealth is being able to choose your future career. If you get out of college in debt, of course you would take the highest paying job in order to pay off those debts, no matter what it was. But if you little to no debt you can take a job at an NGO that you really want to do, and not feel bad for making less money as long as you are pursuing your passion.

One idea in the realm of wealth that has always puzzled me has been the idea of “class”. Whenever the idea of social classes arises in conversation, 9 times out of 10 the person I am talking to will say that their in the “middle class”. Even people I know that are obviously in the upper class, still tend to say that they are only in the upper middle class. So why are Americans so discomforted by talking about the idea of their economic wealth? I guess wealth is a personal issue. I mean today, truthfully I cannot tell if someone is upper class, middle class or lower class. Since some people choose to spend all their money towards their appearances sometimes I assume their upper class, but in reality they are middle to lower class, they just choose to spend their money on their appearance versus their housing, food etc.

Wealth is a very touchy subject in the United States. But I do believe that it is sometimes good for us to discuss it. I enjoyed Thursday’s class a lot. J

Joke of the day: "It's clear" said the teacher, "That you haven't studied your geography. What's your excuse ?"
"Well, my dad says the world is changing every day . So I decided to wait until it settles down !"