working class? (was Re: [lbo-talk] Farrakhan invites gay speaker to MMM)

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

Ravi:
> I know this comes up every now and then, but I still am not satisifed
> with any attempted answers. So, I ask: What is the working class? Does
> it include white collar workers? How about $150,000/month senior
> engineers? Is wealth an issue? A recent immigrant software engineer
> might make $80,000/year but (s)he may be building his/her life in the US
> from nothing, while a $40,000/year worker might have a family home and
> future inheritance (of parental savings) that could amount to say half a
> million or more.

Ravi, you can as well ask 'what is god, or patriotism, or being one of the
pack?'  'Working class" is a secular expression of similar yearning - it
does not have any empirical meaning but simply expresses the feeling of
being "us and those who are like us" as opposed to "them."  An $150k
software engineer lives by selling his work - but he does not have the
attributes of the American blue collar vernacular and may be even
foreign-born, so he "aint' one of us" hence he is a yuppie not a working
class.  

In short - you or I will never be 'working class' in this country by the
simple fact of being educated and foreign-born, and will never be able to
convincingly emulate the blue collar vernacular that is an essential element
of being 'working class.'  Stated differently, no matter what's your or mine
source of income or politics - we will always be asked the question "where
are you from?" by members of the 'working class' - a sure sign that you or I
are not one of them. 

Wojtek