{"id":7975,"date":"2018-03-02T12:20:39","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T20:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=7975"},"modified":"2018-03-02T12:20:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-02T20:20:53","slug":"middle-class-myth-social-class-actually-works-explained-simply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/03\/02\/middle-class-myth-social-class-actually-works-explained-simply\/","title":{"rendered":"The Middle Class Myth: How Social Class Actually Works, Explained Simply"},"content":{"rendered":"
March 2, 2018 (johnlaurits.com)<\/div>\n
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\"What<\/p>\n

Alongside the classic jingles and fuzzwords like \u201cfreedom\u201d and \u201chardworking Americans,\u201d US politicians love the term \u201cmiddle class,\u201d which is smart politics in a nation where\u00a0about 60% believes they are middle class<\/strong><\/a>. The\u00a0middle<\/em>\u00a0of a group, however, is defined (in statistics, at least) as a section with equal numbers on both sides and \u2014 since\u00a0another 38%<\/em>\u00a0identify as working or lower class \u2014 logically, most folks must be wrong about their middle-position. And besides \u2014 class isn\u2019t determined by any particular position, such as lower, middle, and upper, nor by relative income. In fact, what this poll really shows is that the US could benefit by investing more in its\u00a0math<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0sociology classes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What is the Middle Class & Does It Exist?<\/em><\/h2>\n

\u200bThe middle class is an attractive idea \u2014 its clean, simple, and seemingly self-explanatory. Too bad it\u2019s a\u00a0big, fat pile of nonsense<\/em>. Politicians like to go on and on about it \u2014 middle class\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0and middle class\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 but they never breathe a word about a\u00a0lower<\/em>\u00a0class or a\u00a0higher<\/em>\u00a0class and for good reason. \u201cLower class\u201d is usually taken as insulting and using the term is far too likely to make everyone wonder why people living in the richest nation in history are still deprived of adequate food, housing, and healthcare. And \u201cupper class,\u201d of course, is a difficult term for politicians to use because no one likes people who talk about themselves in the third-person (it sounds\u00a0snooty).<\/em><\/p>\n

How Social Class Works<\/em><\/h2>\n

Economic measurements like net-worth or\u00a0income level<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0can be visualized in terms of lower, middle, and upper by\u00a0lining up everybody from lowest-paid to highest-paid or from least-wealthy to most. These categories are a lot less helpful for\u00a0understanding class<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0because class is about the different kinds of relationships shared by groups of people and the economic parts of their society.<\/p>\n

Class is a measurement of quality, not quantity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Defining Class<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Social class<\/em>\u00a0(also called\u00a0socio-economic class<\/em>) describes how different groups relate to the\u00a0means of production<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, which is just whatever society uses to make stuff \u2014 land, resources, tools, factories, labs, and so on. If a group of people shares the same relationship to the means of production, they are considered a class. In capitalist society, there are two major social classes \u2014 the working class and capitalist class (often called the\u00a0proletariat\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0bourgeoisie<\/em>). Members of the capitalist class own the means of production and members of the working class do not own them \u2014 these are legally-defined relations that are shared by everyone.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

How Class Affects Economic & Social\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Roles<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

Each type of shared relationships \u2014 that is, each\u00a0class<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 has its own unique qualities that influence its members\u2019 lives, including everything from income and education to profession, social status, and more. Members of the working class, for example, often must participate in wage-labor because they lack any means to work on their own and so they must rent themselves to people who own the means. The capitalist class, on the other hand, is mostly free from the obligation to work because they are able to pay workers to produce valuable stuff using their private means, allowing capitalists to pay themselves and employees with the profit.<\/p>\n

Because of these class-characteristics, capitalists tend to fulfill administrative and managerial roles (CEO, investor, entrepreneur, etc.<\/em>) and workers tend to be found in difficult and time-consuming roles (laborer, sales clerk, iron worker, etc.<\/em>). Income and job opportunities are deeply interwoven with questions of class, of course \u2014 but neither jobs nor income\u00a0cause\u00a0<\/em>a person to be in a class. It is the other way around.<\/p>\n

Why the Myth of the Middle Class Is Harmful<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

\u201cYou think you\u2019re so clever and classless and free but you\u2019re still fucking peasants as far as I can see\u201d
\n\u2014 John Lennon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Just like racism and nativism, the incorrect idea that there is a middle class is a deceptive myth that is used by the 1% as a tool to divide the 99%, each against the other \u2014 color versus color, native versus foreign-born, and poor workers versus less-poor workers. The difference is clearest at the extremes and there are certain groups that sometimes seem to possess characteristics of both classes. The so-called small-business owner, for instance, may technically own the means to produce some shred of private wealth but \u2014\u00a0in many cases<\/em>, at least \u2014 their material circumstances are just like the workers\u2019 and they too find themselves working day-after-day just to stay in place.<\/p>\n

\"Class<\/a><\/p>\n

And therein lies the harm that the middle class myth inflicts \u2014 it conjures illusions of division where there are none in reality. The belief \u2014 the\u00a0fantasy<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 that a person is a part of a middle class leads less-poor workers to think their interests differ from the class-interests of the working class at large and ultimately to act against her own interests. Believing they are \u201cmiddle class\u201d leads the less-poor to imagine there is some fundamental difference between themselves and folks who cannot feed their families without government benefits.\u00a0There isn\u2019t<\/em>. There are two classes \u2014 one of them is\u00a0big<\/em>\u00a0and the other is\u00a0small<\/em>. One\u00a0needs<\/em>\u00a0to toil daily for food, housing, and other necessities and the other\u00a0does not<\/em>. One\u00a0must work<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0other is why<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the end, it is the divisions gouged by the material fact of class society itself \u2014 and the material facts of\u00a0racism<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0sexism<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 that limit the fullest development of our humanity. One too many classes exist already and it\u2019d be best not to complicate matters with imaginary ones\u2026<\/p>\n

In solidarity,
\nJohn Laurits<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 2, 2018 (johnlaurits.com) Alongside the classic jingles and fuzzwords like \u201cfreedom\u201d and \u201chardworking Americans,\u201d US politicians love the term \u201cmiddle class,\u201d which is smart politics in a nation where\u00a0about 60% believes they are middle class. The\u00a0middle\u00a0of a group, however, is defined (in statistics, at least) as a section with… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7977,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7975\/revisions\/7977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

\"What<\/a>Language is useful if it means something and \u2014 with no sense of\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0the middle class is\u00a0in the middle of<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 this phrase is political gibberish. As it is used, \u2018middle class\u2019 refers to a vague mass containing an unknown number of people with no defining characteristic that is neither located in the middle of any particular thing nor described by traditional definitions of \u201cclass.\u201d<\/p>\n