Changing American Families

I thought Judy Root Aulette's writing "Changing American Families" was interesting. In particular I was interested in the apparent differences between family units of different economic classes. The practice of the "Upper Class" in America of marrying within their class interested me for two reasons. The first is that historically marriages were arranged to maintain or advance economic and social status in all but the lowest economic classes. According to this writing the middle class is not as concerned with marrying within their economic class as I have learned they were in the past. The second reason I thought this was interesting is because people in the "Upper Classes" seem to spend a lot of time and energy, according to Aulette, maintaining their positions. It makes sense then that marrying into a family of equal or greater status and wealth would be an important consideration. Also interesting was the statement that upper class families train their children to maintain the family fortune by never spending the money they receive. They only use the interest from the family nest egg.

The reading also mentioned that middle class families were the most likely to relocate for work. Because of this most of the research showed that extended family was not a big factor when planning these relocations. Another interesting point on the middle class was that they replace some of these family ties with friendships and other organizations and associations. Families below the middle class line seem to be much more reliant on their extended families for success and survival. I found it interesting that the "upper class" and lower class tended to have more in common with each other from a family perspective than with the middle class.