Life is her own personal hard work, ambitions and dreams. Majority of people are convinced-mostly by the media but also by theirĮducation, church, and the spectacle of shopping malls-that there are It creates a psychological state of mind that blurs the sharpĮconomic lines of objective social divisions brought about by capitalismĪnd dulls the pain of daily economic struggles for subsistence. Standing is, in other words, a social tranquilizer. The idea of the 'middle class' as social and economic The lifestyle-line that separates the bottom from the middleĬlass is more a psychocultural effect than an economic reality.

3) in order to give ideological stability to theĮconomically insecure and unstable life under capitalism. That 'we' are all wage-workers, and, therefore, 'we'Īs Marx puts it, 'middle and transitional' levels of socialĭifferences 'always conceal the boundaries' of classes (Marx, Capital Vol. Myth of the 'middle class' is invented to obscure the fact Here' a former high-tech worker says ( Associated Press, June Society's castaways-the mentally ill, drug addicts and other hard-luck Sleeping in homeless shelters where they are rubbing elbows with Davis writes that high-techĬonsultants and managers, who used to earn more than $100,000 a year,ĭiscovered after suddenly losing their jobs that their middle-class The evidence, in fact, shows that the 'middle class' is anįeature for the Associated Press, Karen A. When they graduate, does not seem to disturb their belief in the Health care is rationed by HMO's and their children’s education isĪlso financed by the banks, to whom they owe many thousands of dollars The reality that their cars and houses are actually owned by theīanks their vacations are often paid for with credit cards their Players have medical insurance and send their children to college. House go on vacation entertain themselves at home with DVD's and CD Their evidence is that they own a car or two have a mortgage on a

Individuals, regard themselves to be part of the 'middle class'. The Crisis: American Intellectuals and 9/11ĭividends of Market Fetishism: CNBC, Profit and ClassĪnd the Question of the 'Single-Parent' FamilyĪmericans, when they are not thinking of themselves purely as

Fussell on class