>The concept of the 'New Class' is obscurantist; it has more to do with
>Weber than Marx, and it helps to perpetuate the empiricist denial of the
>primary contradiction of capitalism: capital versus labor. Most people
>whom social scientists classify as 'New Class' are simply white-collar
>workers. Many empirical and subjective divisions & hierarchical relations
>exist within the working class, but they have to be analyzed as
>contradictions _within_ the working class.
But these "new class" people give orders to others on the job (meaning workers perceive them as bosses, even if they're only glorified forepersons), and don't at all feel working class (quite the contrary, they run screaming from the identification). I know perception and feeling don't matter much to you, but they really do matter for politics. So while these NC people may "objectively" be part of the working class, it's a bit more complicated than you're making it out to be.
Doug