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The article discusses trend of rising economic inequality in the United States with major economic, social, and cultural implications. Topics include rise in the neoliberal ideology that advances individualism, austerity policies and deregulation; realization of difficulty in making the American dream possible by neoliberalism; and discussion of necessity of social scripts for cultural membership due to worsened economic inequality by neoliberalism.

From the start individualization theory is the investigation of the paradigm shift in social inequality. Furthermore it shows, how the transnationalization of social inequalities bursts the framework of institutional responses – nation state (parties), trade unions, welfare state systems and the national sociologies of social classes. In this essay I shall try to conceptually elucidate the ‘cosmopolitan perspective’ on relations of social inequality in three cases: (1) the inequality of global risk; (2) the Europe-wide dynamic of inequality; and (3) transnational inequalities, which emerge from the capacities and resources to transcend borders. Before that I take up Will Atkinson's question: ‘What exactly constitutes individualization and to what extent has it really displaced class?’ ( Atkinson 2007 : Abstract) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author suggests that Ulrich Beck's theory of individualization reflects a crude understanding of class and class analysis that undermines his attempt to supersede concepts of class with a "cosmopolitan" perspective. He suggests that Beck forego his hostility to class simply because it is a concept with a long history.