Publisher's Synopsis
Updated April 6, 2016. At the turn of the last century, the majority of the United States' population was living on farms and many of those farm dwellers were self-sufficient producing all the necessities of life. They were operating all kinds of machinery that made their life more tolerable. They were in the process of "doing" and it was respectable. As the economy became more urbanized and people flocked to cities seeking employment more opportunities developed and "consumerism" came into play. It was a process of structural change within the economy which is a socioeconomic process that involves industrial change and society's adaptation to that change. Consumerism requires something new and better all the time. It led one economists, Joseph Schumpeter, in the 1930 to term the phrase "Creative Destruction" meaning that it was not just important for a one competitor in business to drive the other out of the market but to come up with some new product that would destroy the competition. This kind of activity sold stocks but it also created wild swings in the market. It led to the market crash of 1929 and brought on the "Great Depression." During the United States' great depression, many people were in dire straits, they were looking for hope and the movie industry responded by producing films that promoted the "upper class" with top-hats, tails, gowns, night clubs, etc. Sometime between the "doing" on the farm and the "Great Depression" the "doing" part of work lost out. The trades people who were and important part of society lost their esteem. And were considered to be "lower class or working class." To be placed in the "lower class," is a distinction or stigma that needs to be resolved. The lower class has several connotations: they include the "American lower class" who are those at or near the lower end of the socio-economic hierarchy in the United States; the class of wage-earners whose main value is their "labor"; the "underclass," that segment of the population that occupies the lowest possible position in a class hierarchy, below the working class; and of course the "working class" who are those employed in blue collar and manual jobs - the trades people. There, of course, are the middle and upper classes too. A way is needed to improve social structure through education by teaching the importance of "doing."
