Material aspects of society and the economy crisis

What caught my attention in the reading for this week was a long statement Marx and Engels made on page 39. They stated "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas; ie the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force... the class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it" (39). I found this interesting because in American society the dominant social classes ie the upper class have all the material means and status. Therefore, the dominant class dictates the perspectives of our culture. Therefore, they are having control over the mental production of others. The social hierarchy sets this up in our society and it is seen all over the media. Expensive cars, clothes, houses etc. Anything that represents status and wealth. Since the higher social classes has the power in the material aspects of society. And,the media knows this and uses all this and tries to exemplify it as the American dream. In conclusion, I think these economists conclude that those who aren't in control ie. the lower classes are disposed to all the materialism that this culture represents and encompasses. And since they don't have any control over any power in society they are absorbed by all the ruling ideas and mental production of the high social classes in this society. All and all I thought this was interesting especially since worldwide we are in a economic crisis and now hardly anyone has any control over the ruling material force of societies since the world economy is at an all time low. Economists suggest since home values have decreased substantially over the last twelve months that people are spending less money on material goods. As a result, the stock market is going down because companies are not making as much money because people are not spending money in this economy. And, now our society is in a recession since people are not spending money. Only today economists suggest that we are in deed in a recession. Everyone is being affected by this and losing money. At some point , the economy will level and increase when people feel more comfortable and secure spending their dollars on goods and services. Then, the stock market will go up once the flow of spending increases. When households increase their spending that will boost the economy and stock market. This will happen slowly and will likely take six months to eighteen months occur. Our federal reserve chairman spoke today to an economic group in New York stating it will take time for the economy to grow again and positive results will occur. Hopefully sooner than later.