Ive noticed recently that my generation has... no concept of what the various economic classes actually are anymore. I talk to my friends and they genuinely say things like "at least i can afford a middle class lifestyle with this job because i dont need a roommate for my one bedroom apartment" and its like... oughh
You guys, middle class doesnt mean "a stable enough rented roof over your head," it means "a house you bought, a nice car or two, the ability to support a family, and take days off and vacations every year with income to spare for retirement savings and rainy days." If all you have is a rented apartment without a roommate and a used car, you're lower class. That's lower class.
And i cant help but wonder if this is why you get kids on tumblr lumping in doctors and actors into their "eat the rich" rhetoric: economic amnesia has blinded you to what the class divides actually are. The real middle class lifestyle has become so unattainable within a system that relies upon its existence that theyve convinced you that those who can still reach it are the elites while your extreme couponing to afford your groceries is the new normal.
Regardless of the actual circumstances of your living situation, if you have to sell your labor to survive then you are part of the same class of workers that are abused by capitalism.
A McDonald's employee and a computer programmer at Google are both members of the proletariat because value is extracted from their labor and funneled toward the capital owning class.
The actual class divides we should focus on are not based on wealth but on who is doing labor and who owns the value of that labor.
The reality of the world is that if you need money to live you are not "the rich". The most powerful people in the world do not need money because they own capital and that is the true source of power in capitalism.
