Karl Marx
defined the working class as “Individuals who sell their labor power for wages
and who do not own the means of production.” In today’s hierarchical structure
of the class system, the working class tends to fall into one of the many
different levels of what is known as the middle class. At one time a fairly
easy description of the majority of the American people, the middle class now has
a more complex depiction with its own internal
hierarchical system which consists of upper middle, middle, or lower middle.
According to
our textbook, the working class falls into the lower middle class section and
consists of blue-collar and service workers. I suppose I have always had an
idea in my mind of what jobs consisted of the working class, but to my surprise
the textbook listed policemen and firefighters as being among the working
class. Although they definitely fall into the category of service I guess I was
taken aback by the idea of the men and women who are on the streets protecting
us are one “class ladder rung” away from being part of the lower class in our
society; being part of the displaced and poor. I guess it made me think of
where our priorities are when it comes to defining class and its many different
distinctions.
These days an
appropriate face of the working class can be found camped out just a few blocks
away at our very own City Hall. The Occupy Philadelphia Demonstration is full
of working class people who are desperately trying to get their voices heard,
mostly in order to gain better wages and benefits. Take a walk around the
protest and you can probably count on one hand how many doctors, lawyers, and
CEOs are participating. The people involved are mostly middle class, working
class, people who in this economic downfall, need help to better their
situations. They are people who work hourly jobs, do not have health care, nor have
much in the way of a security net if something where to go wrong. Again, the
textbook mentions that many people in the working class are barely hanging on to
that spot in the class structure as it is. I myself fall into the working class
category so it is scary to think how short of a fall it is down the
ladder.
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