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"Working Class" means people who think a politician will do something to make their life better when that politician says they are for improving the lives of "The Working Class."
As my mom has always said, if you have to work to keep a roof over your head and food in you stomach; if, instead of your money working for you, you have to work for it? Ultimately, you're working class, regardless of education or income.
There's an awful lot of high wage earners who are neither of the latter, living more or less paycheck to paycheck, who would not be considered "working class" in any meaningful sense.
Humpty-Dumpty, of course. Just like the rest of the "defintions" here and everywhere else for slippery, evasive, fundamentally meaningless SE labels.
According to your definition, a professional couple making $250k a year but with little retirement, insignificant savings and proportional debt - living from paycheck to paycheck just like a $40k factory worker - would be "working class." You're free to modify your definition.
"Working Class" means people who think a politician will do something to make their life better when that politician says they are for improving the lives of "The Working Class."
And you can substitute any socioeconomic term you like in that sentence. "When I use a term," said President Humpty...
Hello everybody,
What exactly does "working class" mean?Does it mean people who work for a living?Or does it mean people that did not go to college and work blue collar jobs?Can it mean both?Thanks in advance.
Skilled and unskilled laborers.
Your Professional Class is surgeons, doctors, dentists, nurses, veterinarians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, certified public accountants, certain financial advisors, lawyers, teachers, architects, and certain types of engineers, like civil engineers and any other professions that require licensing predicated on a university degree.
Semi-Professionals are master carpenters, electricians, plumbers, pipe-fitters, masons, welders, and police, fire and private investigators, general contractors, hair stylists, manicurists, boiler operators, sanitation plant operators (many companies have their own sanitation/sewage plants on the premises), truck drivers, other types of financial advisors such as insurance, real estate, and any other profession that requires licensing not based on a college degree.
The Managerial Class are those with MBAs or undergraduate degrees in business like management, accounting, finance, marketing and human resources, but also includes any salaried managerial position.
The Secretarial Class is all secretaries, receptionists, administrative assistants, paralegals, legal assistants, document processors, like those in the medical or insurance fields, including coding, billing, accounting or book-keeping, claims adjusting and such that require some level of decision-making.
The Proprietor Class are those who run their own businesses, but don't fall within the other groups, and they usually involve consulting, retail, grocery, hospitality, food-service and other services (that's where I am).
The Working Class are everyone else, basically laborers.
The Working Class Poor generally refers to those in minimum wage or near minimum wage jobs, as opposed to the Working Class who may receive higher wages because of their skills or experience, like machinists, equipment operators, construction workers and many other jobs that are specialized or highly skilled, but don't require a degree or formal training.
Your Professional Class is surgeons, doctors, dentists, nurses, veterinarians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, certified public accountants, certain financial advisors, lawyers, teachers, architects, and certain types of engineers, like civil engineers and any other professions that require licensing predicated on a university degree.
Semi-Professionals are master carpenters, electricians, plumbers, pipe-fitters, masons, welders, and police, fire and private investigators, general contractors, hair stylists, manicurists, boiler operators, sanitation plant operators (many companies have their own sanitation/sewage plants on the premises), truck drivers, other types of financial advisors such as insurance, real estate, and any other profession that requires licensing not based on a college degree.
The Managerial Class are those with MBAs or undergraduate degrees in business like management, accounting, finance, marketing and human resources, but also includes any salaried managerial position.
The Secretarial Class is all secretaries, receptionists, administrative assistants, paralegals, legal assistants, document processors, like those in the medical or insurance fields, including coding, billing, accounting or book-keeping, claims adjusting and such that require some level of decision-making.
The Proprietor Class are those who run their own businesses, but don't fall within the other groups, and they usually involve consulting, retail, grocery, hospitality, food-service and other services (that's where I am).
The Working Class are everyone else, basically laborers.
The Working Class Poor generally refers to those in minimum wage or near minimum wage jobs, as opposed to the Working Class who may receive higher wages because of their skills or experience, like machinists, equipment operators, construction workers and many other jobs that are specialized or highly skilled, but don't require a degree or formal training.
Meh. I'm an educator with a master's degree who's probably going to begin working on a second. My ex-husband has 2 master's degree in engineering and an MBA. And I consider us working class. Because, when it comes down to it, if we don't work, we're out on the street.
Hello everybody,
What exactly does "working class" mean?Does it mean people who work for a living?Or does it mean people that did not go to college and work blue collar jobs?Can it mean both?Thanks in advance.
Just my personal observation...
"Working Class" is a term folks that are middle class use when they don't want to seem class conscious or don't want to be perceived as well off. Self deprecation, basically.
Heck, if it just came down to "works for a living", there's many 1% folks that could claim to be "working class".
In his book titled, "Class, a guide through the American status system" author Paul Fussel pokes fun at the notions we have about our social ranking amid the myriad of Madison Avenue's attempts to sell the idea of class mobility. He classifies the lumpenproletariat in terms of high, middle and low...
Paul Fussell is a surgically-precise wit! His most enduring point is about “Prole Drift”, which is the continual proliferation of coarseness, poor-taste and simplification of culture… a lowering of standards, all in the name of common-denominator appeal. His book remains a topical indictment of the stupidity of mass-preferences and mass-values… and of the snide hypocrisy in believing that we could (or should) ever by truly “equal”.
Today, one of the least honorable ways of living – at least in the popular imagination – is to be the recipient of investment-income, especially if that income is from equities. Courtesy of Prole Drift, reflexive veneration of labor, as the only legitimate source of income, has gone upmarket. To be a “capitalist” is almost as execrable as to be a parasite. The two are commonly conflated. The person who saves a large part of his income over the course of decades, invests it and reaches a point of living off of the capital-gains/dividends may individually be a hero. But as a member of a class, he’s a villain.
“Working-class” used to mean a stratum to avoid. Parents would warn unruly teenagers that if they refuse to do their homework and to apply themselves in school, they’ll descend into the working-class as a result. Daughters would be told to avoid working-class suitors under any circumstances. Now we read that “working-class” refers to anyone who has the self-prepossession to find and keep a job.
Even our very terminology has been subjected to Prole Drift.
To be a “capitalist” is almost as execrable as to be a parasite.
Capitalist was originally, and long, a fairly dirty term. I'm not sure it lost any of that until at least the 1960s, and then the age of business worship actually made it a good thing to call someone.
And a parasite is a parasite, no matter what SE level they come from. Look up the definition some time.
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