Classism is differential treatment based on social class or perceived social class. Classism is the systematic oppression of subordinated class groups, in an effort to strengthen the dominant class. Classism is the assignment of characteristics of worth and ability based on perceived social class.http://www.classism.org/What_Is_Classism.htmlIt is also systematic discrimination based on perceived socioeconomic status.http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/3/6/8/0/p236800_index.html The amount of capital—economic, social, and cultural — that a person or family has or has access to can deeply affect his or her chances for success. http://www.classism.org/WhatIsClass.php Current trends in classism include political views where the powerless classes are excluded from society by inferior public education systems and the decrease in the availability of jobs that do not require a college degree, like factory jobs. Tax cuts that favor the wealthy and entitlement spending cuts also stand to widen the class gap. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/100226-annual-report-middle-class.pdfhttp://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.143.197http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/20/remarks-president-cnbc-town-hall-discussion-jobs

Classism is illustrated in the book, How the Other Half Lives by Jacob A. Riis. He writes, one half of the world does not know how the other half lives. Riis said it did not know because it did not care. The half that was on top cared little for the struggles, and less for the fate of those who were underneath, so long as it was able to hold them there and keep its own seat. He went on to explain that when the complaints grew too great and that ignoring it was no longer an easy thing to do, the upper half had to find out what was going on.http://www.bartleby.com/208/28.html In the book, Classism for Dimwits, Jacqueline S. Homan highlights how it feels to be deemed poor. She said poverty isolates because of the inability to participate in anything requiring money, limited opportunities and social interactions. She said the opportunity for others to abuse the poor are great because of lack of knowledge and power and that the poor are expected to just "suck it up and take it."http://www.amazon.com/Classism-Dimwits-Jacqueline-S-Homan/dp/0981567916#reader_0981567916

During the 1600s and 1700s, poor people were encouraged to indenture themselves to go to America. They became commodities of profit for merchants, traders, ship captains, and their masters. Once in America, they had no rights and could not vote.http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnvil3.html The upper classes were getting most of the benefits and monopolized political power during the late 1600s to 1700s. Immigrant labor during industrialization grew the fortunes of the upper class deemed “robber barons” after the Civil War, due to the formation of monopolies that controlled industries. These industries employed thousands at low wages and in dangerous conditions. However the labor movement organized working people to improve poor conditions, growing the middle class.http://www.life.arizona.edu/residentassistants/programming/social_justice/History_Class.pdf As exports to the rest of the world grew, so did the middle class and working class. Skilled and unionized working-class people began to own homes and have pensions; the children and grandchildren of poor immigrants and African Americans went to college in large numbers and populated the new sprawling middle-class suburbs by the end of the 1960s.http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnbaron11.html