Americas Working Class

By: David Newsome

What is the working class? Many define it as a class consisting of unskilled or semi-skilled laborers who work for low hourly wages instead of a fixed salary. A large majority of this class consists of blue collar workers. Blue collar jobs include construction working, pluming, bus driving, welding, mining. In addition many members of this class are also among the 45% of U.S. citizen who did not attend college.

(Click here for more on Social Class)
http://www.cc-ds.org/conferences/Cormier.pdf

Income levels of this class range from approximately $16,000-$30,000 a year. This class consists of approximately 30% of the U.S. population and strongly blends with the lower middle class in which many of its members are considered to be. When the economy is tough many feel this class is effected most. Many in this social class have unstable positions in there work places and are let go from there jobs when times are hard. In addition considering a large amount of citizens in this social class lack college degrees, finding work can be difficult. As a result an increasing amount of people in this social class find themselves falling into the working poor and lower class. As prices of everyday needs such as food and gas continue to rise during difficult economic times citizens of this class feel an increasing amount of pressure. Those who are fortunate enough to keep there jobs struggle day to day to make ends meet.

(Below is a video of a working-class women who receives help from a local organization to feed her family)

World Famous Philosopher Karl Marx described the working class people as Proletariat or those who provide hard work and labor for wages but do not own there own production. He believed strongly that society's wealth was produced by the working class, even though they were actual owners of very little. For example Mechanics and office clerks do not own their work place, the tools they use or even the product of there labor. As a result they work for consistent wages which remain the same regardless of how difficult of easy there job become.

In conclusion the working class is one the largest social classes and one of the toughest to be a part of. It is full of citizens living paycheck to paycheck with unstable job positions. With a currently bad economy many find it increasing easy to fall out of this class and sadly man do as they become replaced by those with higher education.


(Karl Marx pictured below)

(Click the following links to read more about Marx's ideas)

http://www.marxist.net/marx/m2frame.htm?workingclass.htm

http://www.marxists.org/archive/eleanor-marx/works/wcia.htm