Monday, August 27, 2007

SOCIOECONOMIC CLASS

The status associated with farming, property ownership, and entrepreneurial success in the Amish community is creating socioeconomic class disparity. Amish people who engage in these activities receive privileges unattainable by those who don't.
My father would invite us to go to my brother's farm for a working / social visit on a Saturday. This kind of inter-action is one of the Amish people's strengths. The dirty secret is that if you're living in a rental property, and work as an employee you are not very likely to be the host for one of those legendary barn raising's. The Amish haven't come to terms with the fact that they aren't solely agrarian anymore. So the paradigm that once worked well, is now setting them up for a classic fall from grace. To bad their authoritarian leadership has such a strangle-hold on dissenting voices. The fall wouldn't have to be so hard if they didn't.

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