The middle class trap

I have heard this many times that middle class life is bliss. You are not rich enough to be insecure with your wealth, not poor enough to be incapable of meeting your survival needs. It is the middle class that is the fuel of the economy. We, the middle class people, should aspire to educate ourselves , have ambitions to be rich and lead a moral disciplined life. We should be loyal to our friends , families and our jobs. We should be religious and honest and punctual and be sensitive to the needs of the society. 

However, when I think carefully , it seems that the existence of middle class itself is an illusion. Someone who is a middle class in USA  is a poor class person in Africa. Even within the middle class , there are numerous sub classes with complex interactions between them. In India a Brahmin and a Sudra can both be economically middle class but in terms of social hierarchy , one of them enjoys higher power and prestige than the other. The use of the term middle class ,   hence , prevents us from seeing the inequalities that exist within the same economic group. The CEO of a company and a fresher can both be middle class when the CEO is earning in few million dollar whereas the college fresher might be getting a few thousand only. The point is that within middle class there are severe inequalities economically , socially , politically and culturally to refer to it as a single class group. If we focus our policies on the middle class we tend to ignore the complex relationship between several sub-class groups that are now termed together as middle class. 

I should now turn my attention to the social life of India. Here , we have reservation based on the caste you belong to. This means that a friend of mine who is coming from a lower caste should be eligible for certain quotas in educational institutions and government jobs. On the other hand , myself , who belong to an upper caste but with much less wealth than my lower caste friend will be denied any reservation whatsoever.  This is injustice but the society at large attributes this to historical injustice meted out to the lower castes in India. So here I am , not getting the benefits of reservations because I belong to a caste that is regarded as a high one and the reason for this does not lie with me but with my forefathers. Please do not get me wrong that I am saying ,caste based reservation is not required in India. I do believe that lower castes were historically denied their rights and some form of balance might have been required. It is just that I do not understand why I have to pay for these historical problems , when my need for reservation is more than others. 

It is obvious that I will cry foul that I am the poorer one here and needed reservation but the government denies me that right saying that , well! you are not poor but your status is middle class. The term middle class now becomes a tool in the hands of policy makers to deny me. You have some benefits if you are below poverty line . 

Now I talk of another problem. Many times in India , the apartments are allocated to individuals are either LIG, MIG or HIG, representing the income group of the person. My salary is in the HIG band but the prices of realty are so inflated that buying a HIG apartment is out of my reach. However with some bank loans I can afford to buy the MIG ones but the policies restrict me to even apply for MIG apartments. In the same way , the people in MIG salary bracket can only afford the LIG apartments. The builders get good money out of it by buying these units themselves ( off  course on behalf of few known people ) and resell these units at higher price. The allotment laws do not apply for resale of properties. 

This is yet another example of how this term , Middle Class is being used to deny some facilities to someone. 

Anyways let me talk now about something more important. We need a singular identity to motivate people to do work for us . That identity can be religion, political belief , racial and cultural identity and economic identity. Hence , we see , founders of big corporations with billions of dollar boast of their middle class identity and flaunt middle class values in the public. It is their way of saying, we were middle class but we have worked hard and now we are rich . You can be like us, just work more. Be more productive. What lies hidden in that conversation is that your productivity will make me richer. It is a well crafted story and the PR agencies make good money by branding and portraying such middle class values for these personalities. The biggest middle class trap is to believe in the middle class ! 

Pic by Stephanie Mcmillan