Domhoff on the Ruling Class

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sun Aug 18 18:52:12 PDT 2002


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



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