America’s Middle Class Myth

By Harry E. Berndt

Misunderstanding class is a danger that can cause a large portion of the population to act in ways that are contrary to their best interests. There was a time when people in America understood their position in society and the position of others. There were the rich whose lives and life style differed in a considerable way from that of the rest of the society. Rich meant the possession of wealth; one’s annual salary was not the determinant. There were those whose wealth resulted from inheritance; wealth accumulated over time and passed from one generation to the next. Those with wealth of this kind were often referred to as possessing “old wealth”, and those who possessed it were thought to be of a higher order of humanity. Those, whose wealth was accumulated by them personally, through what was often thought of as hard work, were referred to as the nouveau rich. They were sometimes thought of as possessing wealth through means less than honorable. Nevertheless, the rich were of a class thought of as the upper class.

There were those who were well off; that is, they possessed some wealth but not so much as would place them among the rich. These were largely people possessing particular skills that provided wealth over time through savings and investments. They were lawyers, doctors, and successful business people. They generally did not have to depend entirely on a weekly or monthly pay check. They constituted a middle class and most often they sided with the upper class in matters related to wealth and prestige, and in matters that related to wages. Their interests were generally the same as those of the rich, as they were often employers and closely related to the upper class in one or another manner.

The major portion of society was the working class; those who depended on a weekly or monthly pay check. There was generally recognition that their interests were not the same as the interests of their employers. Workers banded together by forming unions to better promote their well-being in their relations with their employer. They recognized that they needed the employers and also that the employers needed workers, but that the employer controlled the wages. The working class through their union participation struggled against employers, most often large corporations, to get a share of the wealth created through their labor. Major strikes occurred and violence often ensued, initiated by the employers as well as by the strikers.

Finally there were the poor; those whose standard of living was less than adequate. They were not just the dissolute, but more often than not worked very hard for wages that were insufficient to maintain them and their families. Often too, they were single women with children who were unable to provide adequately for themselves and their children. In the United States, there was never a social safety net to adequately care for those people in need. The general position of the rest of society was that if you were poor it was because you did not try hard enough and expected the government to take care of you.

Today there are really only three recognized classes in America; the rich, the poor, and everyone else. Everyone else is called the middle class. The forgotten class is the working class; those who produce the greatest share of the nation’s wealth. When those of us who are workers think of ourselves as middle class, we tend to embrace middle class values; we tend to think that our interests are the same as the interests of the corporations. In a sense, we do share with the employer the need for the success and profitability of the company. However, we may differ as to how the profits should be shared, what the working environment should be, how work should be measured, and other issues that often separate management and labor.

Once it was an accepted fact that workers needed to join together to assure that their interests were protected. They joined unions and paid union dues. Today, many workers believe that there is no need to join unions. They accept that they are middle class because they are employed and enjoy a pay check each week or month. However, lacking wealth makes them vulnerable to the vagaries of corporate management. 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. 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. However, 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. The result has been wage stagnation, loss of benefits relating to health care, pensions, and job security. The idea that we are all middle class is promoted daily by our politicians, media, and institutions of learning. Most of us are not middle class; most of us are working class.