Domhoff on the Ruling Class

[Doug Henwood]

Carrol, thanks for sending that. It's hard to find anything in 
Domhoff's letter that I'd disagree with especially, though I'm 
disappointed he didn't question the taste of a r.c. that would have 
Edgar Bergen as one of its favored entertainers. Could you get 
Hacker's review? If you sub to the NYRB, you get the full archive for 
$20 extra, right?

The points I was trying to make the other day, or should have if I 
didn't, is that Venn diagrams of the following groups would 
intersect, but wouldn't be identical: the rich, capitalists, and the 
ruling class. Car dealers in Memphis may be part of a local ruling 
class, but they're at best foot soldiers of a national r.c. And I 
like making a distinction between rentiers and capitalists more 
directly involved in production; CEOs at least are skilled workers, 
whilre rentiers have simply staked a claim to social wealth as 
somehow their right.

80s tycoons were notorious for their wives - John Gutfreund had 
Susan, Norman Pearlstein had Nancy Friday. That's not true of the 
latest crop, is it? Who hung on Gary Winnick's arm?

Doug