CONTEXT:
The top image is a political cartoon by Peter Nicholson and was published in December of 2001. The image was found on his website, where he publishes politically-oriented cartoons semi-regularly.
The bottom image was found on Bill Moyer's website in an article by Karin Kamp published in September of 2013. The article, titled "By the Numbers: The Incredibly Shrinking Middle Class" outlines the decrease in median income (which is a good indicator of "how the middle class is doing") since 1999. The article also shares a multitude of statistics on the problem causing this decrease in median income, the work available in the U.S. compared to other countries, and the costs of health care, education, and other expenses taken on by middle class families.
The bottom image was found on Bill Moyer's website in an article by Karin Kamp published in September of 2013. The article, titled "By the Numbers: The Incredibly Shrinking Middle Class" outlines the decrease in median income (which is a good indicator of "how the middle class is doing") since 1999. The article also shares a multitude of statistics on the problem causing this decrease in median income, the work available in the U.S. compared to other countries, and the costs of health care, education, and other expenses taken on by middle class families.
Course REading:
This bio-power was without question an indispensable element in the development of capitalism; the latter would not have been possible without the controlled insertion of bodies into the machinery of production and the adjustment of the phenomena of population to economic processes. But this was not all it required; it also needed the growth of both these factors, their reinforcement as well as their availability and docility; it had to have methods of power capable of optimizing forces, aptitudes, and life in general without at the same time making them more difficult to govern (Foucault, History of Sexuality: An Introduction, 140-141).
Analysis:
Even with multitudes of quantitative data listed in the article, it is still difficult to define who is middle class, and who is poor. Being rich is somewhat easier to define: the article refers to the top 1% of American society as rich or upper class. Statistics throughout the article implied the malleability of these socioeconomic roles, especially the middle to lower class categories. For example, 76% of the “1 percenters” said they were “middle class at heart,” while 8.4% of Americans describe themselves as “lower class.” These statistics, based solely on subjective feelings rather than income calculations, show the docility that Foucault mentions in his piece. As Foucault points out, capitalism depends on the “controlled insertion of bodies into machinery of production” as well as the “availability and docility” of those bodies. The socioeconomic classes can change and morph through the years, classifying individuals as “lower class” who perhaps weren’t the year prior. As such, the stark lines between rich/poor begin to blur, a phenomenon noted in the political cartoon. A fat white man lounges nonchalantly, martini glass in hand, on a pillow, which rests on the back of a dark-skinned, dangerously thin man whose expression is both frightened and concerned. Another white man in a suit measures the height of the pillow, claiming, “the gap between the rich and the poor is not as great as we thought.” This cartoon implies, among other things, that the rich are active participants in the oppression of the poor, and that the middle class (the pillow) is used in part as a buffer between these two statuses as well as contributors to the lower class’s misfortunes. The pillow is nameless and faceless, which similarly resonates with the ubiquity and ambiguity of the middle class. The text of the comic matches well with the graph below it, which shows the ebb and flow of the median household income and that the middle class is “shrinking,” making the line between the rich and the poor harder to define. This "shrinking" description also shows that the American society is being pushed towards a polarizing economic class structure: either rich or poor with no space for a middle class to exist.
The accompanying article also mentions that while productivity has increased across the work force, the income level has not increased to reflect that fact. This relates to capitalism having power “capable of optimizing forces… without at the same time making them more difficult to govern.” In this sense, the middle class’s productivity has been optimized, but they have in turn become more malleable, easier to govern under the shrinking median household income and other disabling economic factors.
The accompanying article also mentions that while productivity has increased across the work force, the income level has not increased to reflect that fact. This relates to capitalism having power “capable of optimizing forces… without at the same time making them more difficult to govern.” In this sense, the middle class’s productivity has been optimized, but they have in turn become more malleable, easier to govern under the shrinking median household income and other disabling economic factors.