At 03:38 AM 01/09/2001 -0800, you wrote:
>I'm curious - define "working class".
For Marxists and sympathizers, the working class is not defined by income,
as Carrol indicates. (The income definition is inherently fuzzy, since one
never knows where to draw the line.) The "working class" represents a
position in the societal structure (a relation of production), referring to
those who must work for others (the capitalists) in order to survive
because they lack ownership of the means of production or even significant
means of subsistence. That is, they can only buy consumer goods by selling
their labor-time (or, more accurately, labor-power) to those who own the
factories, offices, money, etc.
This represents a location in the social structure that is growing over
time relative to the total population. People move in and out of this
location, but mostly the faces remain the same.
other locations: capitalists -- own the means of production; petty
producers -- self-employed. Some people have mixed positions, as with those
of the "middle layers" who don't own the business and have to sell their
labor-power, but boss people around on the job.
(BTW, as pen-lers can tell, I learned from E.O. Wright's early work on class.)
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~JDevine
