Comment 70079

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted September 26, 2011 at 23:35:09 in reply to Comment 70070

I didn't say that we couldn't have some people living comfortable middle-class existence - just that not everybody can have it. It's an exclusive status by definition.

Class isn't just an issue of how much money you have or make, it's how you're related to the productive system. There are certainly skilled working-class people who put in lots of overtime and have far more take-home pay than hard-up entrepreneurs. The issue is one of power, and if everyone has it, then who do they have power over? Who's actually doing the work?

There's a popular myth that "everybody's middle class these days", but that only hides the vast disparities of wealth which exist in our society. Sociologically speaking, only about 30% qualify, with only the top 5% of the total ("upper-middle class") actually owning and controlling most of the economy. Making $30/hr at a factory with a pension, benefits and mortgage doesn't make you middle class - it just makes you a well-paid worker. That, of course, is a far more achievable goal for everybody, or at least it would be if we didn't allocate so much money toward the top.

"Today, the notion of progress in a single line without goal or limit seems perhaps the most parochial notion of a very parochial century." — Lewis Mumford

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