מעמד אמצע וספר הרווחים

Corporations created a new class

• Corporations' need for managers and for male and female clerical workers, as well as increased access to educational institutions, fostered the growth of a distinctive middle class.
• The cause is corporate structure — 6.6's redesigned management needs people to run it.
• Male and female clerical workers puts women in the new middle class explicitly, which is the CED's own wording.

Leisure expanded consumption

• A growing amount of leisure time also helped expand consumer culture.
• Leisure is a resource like income: consumption requires both money and time to spend it.
• 6.4's Europe-facing analogue in unit 6 of the European course is the same point — consumer culture is a way of life, not just a market.

Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth: the same premise, the opposite duty

The Gospel of Wealth

• Some business leaders argued that the wealthy had a moral obligation to help the less fortunate and improve society, as articulated in the idea known as the Gospel of Wealth, and they made philanthropic contributions that enhanced educational opportunities and urban environments.
• Some, not most — and the CED records both the argument and the contributions that followed it.
• Two named results: educational opportunities and urban environments.

Gospel of Wealth against Social Darwinism

• 6.9's Social Darwinism says success at the top is appropriate and inevitable — so nothing is owed.
• The Gospel of Wealth says the wealthy have a moral obligation — so something is owed, voluntarily.
• Both accept the outcome and differ on the duty, which is why they could be held by the same class at the same time.

Opportunity and its effects

• The objective is the causes of increased economic opportunity and its effects on society.
• Causes: corporate demand for managers and clerks, and increased access to educational institutions.
• Effects: a distinctive middle class, expanded consumer culture, and philanthropy that reshaped schools and cities.