The Middle Class
Since words are a significant factor in the determination of Ideology and ones place in society, it seems to me that the concept of class is important and should be clearly understood. Frankly, I am tired of everyone talking about the middle class without having any idea of what and who is the Middle Class.
Is it possible that we are all middle class? Obviously not. Yet, scratch an American and you come up with middle class. One's perceived position in society determines his or her ideas and actions. To think of oneself as middle class means to also support middle class values and ideas; values and ideas that may actually be in conflict with one's best interests and actual position in society.
The term middle class was earlier related to the French term bourgeoisie, the term used to designate industrialists and bankers whose interests were tied to those of the upper class. Later, bourgeoisie came to include shop owners and small business people. In other words, middle class was equated with wealth and material possessions, and later with managerial positions. In John Galsworthy's trilogy of the Forsytes, Soames Forsyte, "the man of property", is the symbol for the middle class, dominated by the acquisition of money and possessions. The middle class, then, was anchored in wealth and was not dependent upon wages for its subsistence.
In the mid-twentieth century in the United States, middle class became less distinct and was popularly associated with white collar employment. That this was delusional is apparent when it is recognized that a great deal of white collar employment actually paid less than blue collar employment, which was defined as working class. Until at least the mid to late nineteen seventies, the number of blue collar employees was greater than white collar employees in the United States. However, with the changing nature of work, white collar employees now out-number blue collar employees. Also, a large percentage of the population now attends some form of post high school education, further strengthening the notion that they have become middle class.
An additional reason for the middle class definition of the American public is because media and status quo institutions have held up middle class images that reflect an idealized American, one to which everyone aspires. This idealized American is hard working, monogamous, educated, patriotic, and dedicated to the idea of free enterprise and competition.
Adhering to these presumed middle class values causes the vast majority of Americans to overlook the defining factor of middle class, which is to say that they fail to discern the difference between the man of property and the wage earner. Wage earners are people who depend on wages from employers for their subsistence. They are dependent upon wages to the extent that losing their position means economic hardship, if not disaster. The middle class has sufficient wealth to subsist without employment. The nature of work has changed, not the class position of the worker.
Does it make any difference how one perceives one's class position? I think it does. The loss of class consciousness by large segments of the American working class causes them to support positions contrary to their best interests, to vote for people whose interests are vastly different from their own, and has been a major cause for the weakening of the American Labor Movement. One can at least question whether scabbing, which seems to be de rigueur among the working class in the United States, would exist alongside of working class consciousness. Indeed, would billionaires gain popular support, particularly those who have been union busters, if people who are really working class did not think of themselves as middle class?
In a country like the United States, one with only two political parties of note, it is an easy matter for the economic powerful to gain control of both parties. This is evidenced in campaign funding, where wealthy interests give financial contributions to the candidates of both political parties. We now have an administration in Washington we all hope will make the future of the country, and all of our futures, more prosperous. But should we be concerned that the party traditionally thought of as the party of the working class now thinks of itself as the party of the middle class. It is time that someone defines the middle class and makes a distinction between it and the working class.
Let's face it, most of us are working class, not middle class, and it's time we recognized what that means in terms of class interest.
