> Miles:
>> 1. We can study how people self-identify as working class or middle
>> class; for this, we need to respect the common sense distinctions
>> people make.
>>
>> 2. We can create a theory to analyze social classes in the U. S.;
>> for this, common sense distinctions are irrelevant.
[...]
> I understand what is at stake, all I am doing is questioning the
> usefulness
> of the concept of class as it is used today.
>
> The concept of class as defined by Marx (e.g. in relation to the means of
> production) made both empirical and theoretical sense. That is to say, it
> served an analytically useful purpose in Marx's theory of the production
> of
> wealth under capitalism, and denoted a large clearly identifiable group of
> people. However, I think the concept lost most of its usefulness today,
> because the empirical conditions and the theory needed to explain them
> have
> changed. To make a longer story short, you cannot identify a coherent
> class
> of people by mere relations to the means of production - because there are
> other, more powerful identifiers. Secondly, the value is no produced by
> the
> working class in the classical sense (i.e. people manufacturing the
> product), but by the army of marketers, traders, regulators, etc. without
> whom the value (as defined by the GDP) would shrunk manifold. Whether
> these
> factors render the notion of class useless may be subject to debate - but
> some serious rethinking is needed here.
-------------------------------------
The concept of class is so elusive today - to the point many cannot find any
meaning in it - because of the virtual absence of class conciousness
resulting from the Western working class having largely risen from its 19th
condition of immiseration, rather than having fallen further into it, as
Marx had forecast. It's greater social mobility, conquest of the universal
franchise and various forms of social insurance, access to a wide range of
consumer goods, the democratization of dress and speech codes, and the less
regimented workplace have all blurred the distinction between classes. Ijn
this sense, Wojtek is quite right that "the concept has lost most of its
usefulness today, because the empirical conditions and the theory needed to
explain them have changed."
But I agree with Miles that it is still possible to "analyze social classes (and)...for this, common sense distinctions are irrelevant." Most people are still "working class" - whether they choose to view themselves as such or not, and despite the great disparities of education, status, and income between them. They are so because they are still primarily dependent on wages and salaries, as well as government social programs, for their basic means of existence. Thus, they have a common interest - not usually recognized until they are starkly confronted with the choice - in maintaining social programs rather than cutting taxes, and in collectively rather than individually negotiating their working conditions with their employer. This applies to our milieu - the pejoratively-labelled "yuppie" milieu - as well. This is why college-educated teachers, journalists, social workers, government employees and others have not shown any noticably less inclination to press for trade union rights or to engage in strike action than preceding generations of workers, and in fact, they have often been at the forefront of contemporary labour struggles. The cities and downtown neighbourheads in which they live also tend to vote for liberal and social democratic political parties which favour increased social spending and labour rights rather than conservative ones which favour cutbacks in these areas.
Those dependent of other forms of income such as profits or or rents or dividends - also a widely disparate group, from small farmers to the heads of large corporations - have an interest in government policies which favour their interests, eg. lower taxes and lower labour costs, and for this reason they tend disproportionately to favour conservative parties.
So I would say the class location of an individual, broadly speaking, is still a good indicator of the kinds of political and social choices they are likely to make, and is what continues to give the concept of class its relevance.
It's true that in relatively stable periods, these economic divisions tend to be obscured, and cultural and social issues dominate the political discourse. But in crisis periods, these fissures around labour income and social spending become pronounced.
MG