As I have been growing up, I have wondered what my chances of success would be later on in my life. I consistently wondered if I would have the same chance to make as much money as the top “…

wealthiest 1 percent of the American population that holds 36 percent of the total national wealth”(Mantsios 380). These are people who are wealthy and success that I’ve seen on movies and television that make billions of dollars a year. I was raised into a middle-class family and my parents did everything in their power to provide my siblings and me with an opportunity for success. My father who was raised into a lower class family, and who dropped out of high school after his junior year and began working in construction. I have witnessed how hard he works each day to make the living we need, working from dawn till dusk, 6 days a week and at times 7 days a week for 12-14 hours. My father is amazing at what he does but in contrast to the top one percent of Americans, his annual salary (along with the other 99 percent’s) is incomparable pocket change to them.

Although my father began with nothing and was able to work his way up and out of the class he began in I still wondered why he was not able to make as much, or even half, in a lifetime as some elite Americans make in a month