On Nov 13, 2006, at 9:41 AM, Jim Devine wrote:
at any given time, the US ruling class is that part of the class structure that owns financial claims to means of production based in the US. It rules the economy, but not necessarily the government
That's not what a ruling class has usually meant; it sounds like you're describing capitalists. To be a ruling class, doesn't it have to be formed socially and act politically? And much of the "financial claims to the means of production," by which I suppose you mean stocks and maybe bonds, are owned by pension funds on behalf of workers. They're managed by professional money managers, but does that make the portfolio managers the ruling class? I'm in the early stages of a book on this topic, so I'm not going to let anyone get away with easy formulas! Doug
