punishment(was: Student Loans & Bankruptcies (wasRe:creativefinancing)

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Thu Apr 26 06:45:04 PDT 2001


Kelley Walker wrote:
>
> right. this is why you are so punitive wrt anyone who uses the term middle
> class.
>
>

Frankly, I don't see how one could make a maillist post punitive even if one wanted to. It doesn't cohere. Many marxists who I respect and like also use the term -- and periodically I try to make them feel uncomfortable in its use. I have yet to see a usage of the term (even as an ideological term) that doesn't confuse the text in which it appears. The clearest use I ever saw of it was in a WSJ column terming the post office the last government-supported middle-class wage subsidy. In other words, anyone receiving a living or semi-living wage is middle class. Hence anyone not receiving a living wage is a low down bum and deserves whatever he/she gets.

Carrol



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