In the essay by Rhonda Burns, "Downsizing the Middle Class," there seems to be one clear message. The gap between the middle and upper class is growing because the rich are lobbying government officials to change the rules and regulations that protect the middle class from the rich. She says that companies that had created jobs in the past are now downsizing in order to gain more total revenue and do not care whom they destroy in the process. Another argument she uses is that businesses are the idea of "survival of the fittest," and that newer management is firing good employees who have helped build the company. The essay closes by stating that during the Cold War with Russia the American middle class laughed at the idea of communism because they supported and believed in the free enterprise system of America (125). …
