The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret

Rating:
Summary: To Working Class: You are not Middle Class
Review: Class-talk is mostly nonexistent in the U.S. We as a rule hear that most of us are in a vast middle class and share similar experiences, expectations, and opportunities. The author of this book punctures that notion and counters with the reality that capitalistic society is very much defined by distinct classes: an elite and small capitalistic class, a large working class, and a middle class of professionals, entrepreneurs, and managers that reside between the other two. His key point is that it is not income that defines the classes: it is the exercise of power. An elite capitalistic class dominates and controls our society culturally, politically, and most basically in workplaces and corporations. It is that exercise of power that sets capitalists apart. The working class is essentially powerless by comparison with the author's middle class exercising varying degrees of power depending on actual position held.

The author identifies several approaches that obscure the existence of classes. One is that we gain our identity primarily as consumers. As consumers we are told we are "sovereign," that is, empowered. Of course, the systematic manipulation by advertisers is an agenda of disempowerment of consumers adding to the domination already occurring in workplaces. Another myth is that people freely change positions (upward mobility) within a vast middle class. In other words, class does not largely determine life's chances and successes even though there is substantial evidence to the contrary. To further deny the reality of classes in American, talk of class is discredited by elites as foreign to America, or at least as an ideology of the past. While this book is not about media domination of American culture, the author does attribute to the media a role in obscuring talk about class from mainstream American culture. That point should have received greater emphasis.

The author contends that the recovery of the lexicon of class is essential for the working class to understand and to deal with the forces at work in society. It is the power of capitalists to control the economy that has seen working class wages decline and stagnant over the last twenty-five years while income and wealth has been redistributed upwards. It is not the mythical "invisible hand." The folding of capitalists into the "rich" obscures the exercise of power. Entertainers are often rich but seldom wield any power. In addition, in a sociology devoid of the exercise of power, the poor are construed as lacking moral fiber and not as less fortunate members of the working class. The poor are a convenient target for the anger of working class communities or families who have suffered various dislocations or dysfunctions. Power wielding economic elites remain hidden and free of blame.

The larger purpose of this book is to not only educate the working class about power dynamics but to inspire a revitalization of working class political activity. Any realistic assessment of the working class' ability to form independent organizations to counter the think tanks, political parties, trade associations, university support, and the corporate media, all directed by the capitalistic class, is simply lacking. The absence of class-talk is not a recent phenomenon. Even traditional working class organizations like labor unions have been content with sacrificing worker power for material benefits. It is most difficult to fathom the working class overcoming the efforts of educational institutions, the media, and other elitist directed bodies in their quest to obscure the dynamics of American society. Nonetheless this book is another wakeup call for the working class. Hopefully it will make its way into the hands of those for whom it was written.

Rating:
Summary: America's Best Kept Conspiracy Theory
Review: If one defines premises the way one wants, one can come to almost any conclusion.

This book asserts that anyone who isn't a manager, professional or entrepeneur is part of the "working class," with all the historical baggage the term carries. Since the author defines the "working class" in such a way that it is the majority of the population, and since it doesn't vote the way the author believes it should, there must be a conspiracy that uses a variety of malign tools to deprive this majority of its right to redistribute the goodies to itself.

This bit of semantic legerdemain permits the author to ignore the economic and social miracle which has occurred in the U.S. and most of the West in the last century: In 1900 the vast, vast majority of us lived in what we would today consider to be dire poverty. Now, almost all of us enjoy a level of wealth, security, leisure...and autonomy...that our great grandparents only saw in their dreams.

Zweig disparages the system that produced this result...and can't explain why it did not occur in the workers' paradise which took his ideas a bit too literally.

There will always be people who can't see the empirical evidence that's right before their eyes. Fortunately, when they publish their views, the reading public generally conspires to keep their ideas a well kept secret.

Rating:
Summary: Best book on US Social Classes in the last Decade
Review: Zweig's book is an empirical and analytical tour de force. In rigorous fashion he outlines the current class structure of the US in terms of power and control in the workplace. He proves the continuing relevance of class analysis in an era when most Americans consider themselves middle class, and he aptly describes the class war which the "ruling elite" has been precipitating on the working class. The book is clearly written and convincingly argued, and should be accessible to a wide audience.