Abdulla Al Remeithi

Professor Koning
English 113B
March 16, 2014
Project Text Reflection 1
I used the Social Class Interactive for my father first. For the occupation, I put
financial because he was a finance manager before he retired, and got a result of 60
th

percentile. He finished high school and worked immediately so he got a score of 48
th

percentile in education. As for the income, I put $200,000+ because he had other
businesses as well, so he got a score of 99
th
percentile. I roughly estimated the wealth
of our household and put $5 to 10 million and got a score of 99
th
percentile. The total
average, however, was 76
th
percentile. I would say that its roughly where he/our
family belongs in the society.
This time, I tried the Social Class Interactive for myself. I always wanted to be
a pilot so I put that as my occupation, and scored 65 percent. I assumed that I would
only be a pilot after I receive my bachelors degree so I got a score of 91 percent. I
gave myself a $200,000 per year for income because that is what Im hoping to at
least make. Not only from being a pilot, but being involved and invested in different
businesses. As for wealth, I scored 98 percent because I gave myself $1 to 5 million.
The total average turned out to be around the 88
th
percentile and it sounds about right.
As I reviewed the other tabs, I noticed where the U.S. population started out in
1988, and how most of them went down the economic ladder in 10 years time.
Slightly more than half of them remained in the top fifth sector, while the other
majority went down to the upper middle class and the minority of them went down to
middle, lower middle, and bottom fifth class. Some people in the upper middle class
went up to the top fifth, while some remained, and others went down to other social
classes. What I learned from this Social Class Interactive is that some people could go
down or up the ladder in a few years. There is no fixed pattern that we usually see. In
different generations, families also tend to move from their economic class,
depending on how members of the family worked. Members of poor families usually
work harder in next generations so they can work their way up to the middle class
sector. In the first generation, a typical family starts at about 20% income, while in
the fourth generation they reach above 80% income, which is a very good
improvement.