Rich and Poor

There's an interesting post on Boing Boing called "MySpace, Facebook mirror class divisions in US society", which cites a paper positing that "...well-to-do, stable American teens with "good prospects" end up on Facebook, while poor, queer, marginal and non-white teens end up on MySpace (even in the military, grunts are on MySpace and officers are on Facebook -- guess which one the military banned!)"

Belief in the myth of a classless society, where all people are equal, perpetuates the enormous gulf between rich and poor. Cruelty is woven into our way of life through a thousand little rationalizations. American civil religion, government, schools, and family structures, all maintain the status quo. The ways that we participate in our own oppression never cease to amaze me.

Bush's encouragement for us to go shopping after 9/11 brought us to the mirror, but we can't see ourselves. Rich or poor, we are all pawns in the global economy. As egocentric as we are, we will never be as important as money. We are disposable. The economy must keep growing at the expense of rich and poor. We elect politicians who will ensure our misery.

Slate magazine's book of the week is Rich and Poor, by Jim Goldberg.
"[His] photographs of rich and poor Americans in the late 1970s to mid-1980s, with the subjects' own handwritten comments about themselves on the prints, give us an inside look at the American dream at both ends of the social scale. His pictures reveal his subjects' fears and aspirations and their perceptions and illusions about themselves with a frankness that makes the portraits as engrossing as they are disturbing."(Slate)

SAN FRANCISCO—"I keep thinking where we went wrong. We have no one to talk to now, however, I will not allow this loneliness to destroy me—I STILL HAVE MY DREAMS. I would like an elegant home, a loving husband and the wealth I am used to," 1982.
© Jim Goldberg / Magnum Photos

Link: Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace
Danah Boyd, June 24, 2007