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Jack Braun
Professor Lofswold
English Composition
6 September 2016
Is The Middle Class Dead or Alive?
"Unfortunately, the middle classespecially the blue-collar, middle classis also
starting to look like a fluke,"(McClelland, 550). This is one of the many statements Eric
McClelland uses though out his essay, "Rip, The Middle Class". His writing is about how the
middle class has been abused though out the last seventy five years because of lack of
government intrusion in the economy. The middle class is dying and McClelland thinks it is the
government's fault. He proves his point by using personal stories, specific examples and a
summary of the last 80 years of U.S. government involvement in the economy.
McClelland starts off with a personal story about his old high school teacher, who was
making less than an average middle-class steelworker. With this story, he was telling the reader
that there was a time that the average blue collar worker would be making a very solid wage. He
goes on by giving a summary of the past seventy five years. In this summary he makes it clear
that he believes the reason the middle class is struggling is because of the lack of government
involvement in the economy. The point of his essay is to try to answer one of the biggest
questions in society today. How much power should the government get in the economy? There

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are multiple answers to that question. McClelland is trying to persuade the reader to think that
the government needs to be more included in the economy.
Through out the whole essay McClelland uses examples of families and people who
been laid off because of the poor economy, and blue color citizens who are struggling financially.
For example he talks about Mike Stout, a steelworker who just lost his job when Pennsylvania'
Homestead Works closed in 1986, (556). This was a great help to his writing. He also involved
the story of Flint, Michigan, which went from a thriving auto making city, to a poor and
struggling town. These examples were an excellent way to help McClelland further prove his
point about more government involvement in the economy.
McClelland does a tremendous job in proving his point, another way he proved his point
was when he summarized the last 80 years of the government's involvement in the economy. He
explain how some presidents were the cause of the death of the middle class and he explains how
certain presidents were very helpful in protecting the middle class workers. This supported his
argument tremendously.
In conclusion, McClelland did a great job in expressing his opinion and convincing me
and other readers into believing him, but he should have given the readers the ideas and opinions
of the people who believe in less government intrusion. So, how much power should the
government have in the economy...according to McClelland, all of it.

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Work Cited
McClelland, Edward. RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013. They Say/I Say: The Moves that
Matter in Academic Writing with Readings. Ed. Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. 3rd ed.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2015. 549-59. Print.