The “middle class” never existed. The “middle class” is an invented wedge to split the working class and try to turn segments of itself, against itself. It has no material basis. It is the ‘myth of upward mobility under capitalism’ distilled into a propaganda phrase to obscure the dualistic and antagonistic class relations in capitalist society between the PROPERTIED and UNPROPERTIED (those who own capital and those who do not), and the contradictions and conflicts therein.
It is false consciousness; personified by and in the ‘middle manager’ who is PROPERTYLESS (proletarian), but paid more and promised the “opportunity of more to come” to align themselves with the interests of the PROPERTIED, and take on the role of a low-level overseer – to function as both a compliance enforcer and a mediative focus-dulling pain-sponge standing in the middle of, and soaking up the conflict between, the ONLY REAL TWO CLASSES IN CAPITALIST SOCIETY: The Worker, and the Capitalist.
“Middle class” is liberal sleight-of-hand in its core and conception, and a term to be derided and discarded in all use, except as a magnifying glass to show the ways capitalism distorts and deceives about the real nature of its own properties and relations; and how the ruling class generates and contributes to the development of false consciousness through their reframing of production’s own characteristics, in order to reify into political “identities” to be captured and capitalized upon those roles which naturally manifest out of the laws of functional industrial-productive logistics, ie. the need for ‘managers’ to administrate complex or large-scale productive and distributive tasks. This serves double roles in the laws of colonial and imperial relations in places like the USA, as this distinction is also in practice highly racialized and rooted in the ongoing historical unfolding of these basal-and-superstructural systems of exploitation.
Make note of the conspicuous absences and obfuscations when duopolist-exploiter X or Y says they “fight for the middle class;” that they are not fighting for you or me in the working class, but pandering to those “temporarily embarrassed millionaires” that they’ve bought off enough or otherwise tricked into this false consciousness, to give them their ever-shrinking electoral margins they require and fight each other over so they don’t have to pay any mind to the working class masses who make up the majority; because they in reality work for the big bourgeois, the capitalists, and the petty-bourgeois “small business tyrants” who think of themselves as capitalists — all at the expense of the working class domestically and abroad.
This guy capitalisms ^
For those who haven’t had their coffee yet this morning - ‘middle class’ is yet another term they use to divide us and make us fight with each other instead of the real enemy
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Yeah I’m for sure reading that later. My brain is just reading this like one of those sovereign citizen rants right now, despite there actually being valid points. I think it’s the emphasised word that’s messing with me.
Hell of a ‘first post reply of the day’
Are we talking US here?
In this context, I guess the self-employed would be an intermediate ‘middle class’. A doctor or accountant with her own practice, a master tradesman who can pick and choose his clients, a programmer who does contract work for companies - none of them are propertied enough to have their own workers, but neither are they employed by a boss who takes a cut of their pay. But I agree that a lot of people who call themselves middle class are actually either upper class or working class.
We have great upward mobility here though and it’s a capitalistic country.
Social mobility only describes the ability of the hierarchy to reorder itself. It does not negate or even mitigate the fact that most people are poor.
interesting, how does one become a billionaire in such a way that anyone and everyone could do it?
Oh, you had to be a billionaire to be middle class? I never knew that.
If there’s no way to get to the top, how is the upward mobility “great”?
Being a billionaire is so extremely rare so it doesn’t matter. Social mobility is the ability to move from lower to middle or upper class not from lower to the extreme upper class.
Then define your terms, what is the mobility method, what are the bounds of the classes and by what metric and, what is excellent/great/good/average/poor/bad/terrible mobility?
Avoid prion diseases, mulch the rich.
Maybe compost
Feed them to Poseidon. He likes the taste. And so do the boneworms!
There’s already too much plastic in the oceans. Woodchipper first, bonfire next.
Also, google you’re dumber than a box containing what rocks shat out to think that woodchopper is a word but woodchipper isn’t.
Most of the risk of prion disease is from the brain.
Billionaires are back on the menu!
Think about it this way. In 1960, minimum wage was $1.00/hour and the average home was $11,000.00 In 1968, when Richard Nixon took office, ‘middle class’ meant one Union job supporting a family of four. By the time Bush Sr. left office in 1992 “middle class” was two college jobs to support the household.
The time difference ('68-92) is roughly the same as the time since the Class of 2000 graduated, and now.
This information is relevant to 4% of the people in the world.
And your comment is relevant to 0.005% of the people in the world.
They widened the definition of middle class in order to mask the amount of actual poor people. I like This video of how people actually use their money. Supposedly 20% of people make 25k a year 😱
“The upper class: keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class: pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there…just to scare the shit out of the middle class.” -George Carlin’
50k is hardly a livable wage, let alone 25k. It’s absurd that people can ever think a full time job shouldn’t pay the bills
Sprinkle in a little credit card debt and 2k rent and good luck. You’d think the 1% would be trying to change something before the guillotines come out
Heads too far up their own asses to see that there could be consequences because under the current system they built they don’t face any.
We’re seeing more political violence as things escalate, won’t be too long before it spreads to representatives and the obscenely wealthy Is imagine.
The immoral thing about this is that the upper class don’t work at all and get richer stealing the wages of “middle class” who get poorer. This fucked up wealth gap has been getting worse every year while the news brag and celebrate that the US has made more and more billionares this year than any other countey on earth
There’s a middle class. They are the ones that don’t need the assistance.
The vast majority of the lower class however cling on to defining themselves as middle class for some reason.
The phrase “middle class” is and always has been a very successful psyops campaign intended to displace ‘working class’/‘owning class’ terminology
While I don’t think you’re wrong, they are talking about different things. One is how you’re doing despite being working class. Are you a making it? Keeping your head above water? A dentist or engineer making $250k+? Do you struggle to eat or clean yourself every day?
The other is how do you make your money. Do you work for it or do you exploit for it. Were you simply born into it?
Up until a couple years ago I thought we were moving away from racism and classism and more towards a caste system.
Turns out we actually are, races just have their own sub-castes.
But ultimately there are really very few examples of individuals moving past the second or third tier on their own. Those that do are often flaunted as examples of the American Dream or whatever. Basically, hunger games.
If you define “middle class” as having a phone and a car and a job, then yes, there are countless middle-class families who get some form of assistance.
Middle-class, working families who live in their fucking car.
That’s not a definition of middle class at all. If you live in your car you’re lower / poverty class.
That’s not a definition of middle class at all.
Christ that’s the point of what I wrote and the point of this post. That’s some reddit-level density my friend.
Pretty much everyone calls themselves middle class. Outside of the extremes one would expect, there will always be richer and poorer people among you, meaning you’re in the “middle” - whether you’re struggling to make rent or debating whether or not to go to the vacation home this weekend.
If you struggle to pay rent or buy groceries you’re lower class.
Doesn’t mean you don’t call yourself middle class, because at least you’re not homeless. At the very least, “lower-middle class”
20-something years ago PBS had an excellent documentary called “People Like Us: Social Class in America” to show, well, social class in America. If you can find it, or at least clips of it, I’d recommend it. There was one cutscene with a bunch of people being asked which class they see themselves as, and pretty much everyone felt they were “middle class” - but you could tell by the way they presented themselves (clothes, jewelry, etc) that they were all over the place.
People see themselves through a bias filter. Doesn’t make it true. People don’t like to call themselves lower class even when they are. Especially when they were probably raised middle class, because that paints a picture of failure.
If you struggle with rent or groceries you are lower class. If you’re making minimum wage you’re lower class.
I don’t think we really disagree here. You’re focusing on what people are. I’m focusing on how they see themselves. They’re not necessarily the same things.
American exceptionalism and identity politics have become so ingrained in the culture that it is too painful for people to identify as lower class and needing assistance. Needing help has become considered a moral failing of the individual instead of a failing of the society, and that feeds back into itself to prevent people from changing the culture.
the middle class in America goes up to fucking $50 million dollars, Elon Musk could still have these minor millionaires killed for looking at him wrong
C) is incorrect. it should read, C) Rich people taste like stringy grainy hamburger with 98% fat.
I thought they taste like chicken? Well, there is only one way to find out…
I got the grill up to temp finally. Text me when you arrive with the “food”. :)
That’s why you need ro render out the fat
I try to avoid eating pork but do like alternatives to eat
Some also taste like chicken, I’ve heard.
My religion is against eating pork.
Technically, they just taste like pork, so you might be ok?
Pigs are cool animals. These are not. Pepper and garlic helps a lot. In fact, garlic could save your lives.
Could be your chance to know what it tastes like without being a heretic. Loophole baby!
You save humanity and make the whole world better if you eat these types of pork! God will send you to heaven even if you were an athiest
I plan to compost mine. Meat of any variety would upset my stomach
Don’t worry, all religions are fake.
My religion is eating pork.
I guess I’ll have rich people for lunch.
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