Affluentization
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This term is most often used to describe the way a society gradually becomes more affluent and its members move from a lower class condition to a middle class condition. It has been especially used to describe the process in more developed countries, such as in Europe and the USA in the decades since World War II during which time economic improvements brought about better living standards. The term also has pejorative connotations in the sense that an affluentizing society might be deemed to have lost its core principles of cohesiveness, social conformity and cooperation, which many believe to be values inherently embedded in poverty. This term is often used in association with Social mobility, with those newly affluent people 'moving up' in society sometimes being termed the 'upwardly mobile.'
