[lbo-talk] Americans' class self-ID

[brad bauerly]

>So you're going to take ABC/WaPo's version of class as definitive?  If
>you want to find out what class they belong to, you need something other
>than income brackets.  You need to find out what kind of class power
>their wield, esp. in the workplace.  Are they supervisors, managers,
>human resources, tradesmen, shop owners - basically, people with any
>authority to direct the labour process?  Then they could be classified
>as middle class.
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That was actually my point. There is a lot of speculation as to their actual
class location around here and here
http://theactivist.org/blog/misreading-the-tea-leaves (which is who my
original post was aimed at).  You are correct, in that I shouldn't have said
middle class but middle income.  I think the left needs to really think hard
about why it did not think that a crisis would impact and mobilize the
middle income group as it did.  We need to think long and hard if we need to
only think in terms of the very worst off or if we need to build a class
coalition that includes those middle income people who neoliberalism is
currently throwing under the bus.