Gap In The Middle

Let's not beat around the bush: there is no middle class. There are just two, not three economic classes in capitalism; working class and owner class. The middle class has never really existed, a topic I've touched on often, but bears repeating because the term is still used too often, as if it were real or useful.

The economist Robert Solow noted that “there is no shortage of talk about the middle class”—and that was 10 years ago. Concern about the fate of the middle class is now almost universal. But there is nothing approaching a universal definition. There is a kaleidoscopic range of definitions of the middle class, from a wholly subjective set of aspirations to a highly specific measure of household income, and everything in between.
_{source: Brookings}

Divide and conquer. That's a very old strategy. A strategy used by one class only; the ruling class. We effectively live in a plutocracy, a society in which the owner class is also the ruling class, a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income Derived from ancient Greek, "plutos" means wealth and "kratos" means power. It's not a democracy, derived from "demos" which means (the) people, nor is it an aristocracy anymore, derived from "aristos" which means (the) best. If we were to compare the lot though, our plutocracy has much more in common with an aristocracy as a small group of elevated snobs do all the ruling. And whoever is at the top deploys the strategy of divide and conquer.

That's why the "middle class" was invented. The plutocrats have always been afraid that the rest of the population would form a united front against them. That if we were to learn the truth, which is that we're ALL working class, we would recognize who our real enemies are. The middle class is just a label given to an ever changing part of the population, so that they can distinguish themselves from the lower class, to give them a group of people they can look down on, and to give the lower class a group of people they can look up to or aspire to one day become a part of. It's an arbitrary division of the population, with the division being the only goal. It's a toy for politicians to play with and one-up each other over. They need you to self-identify as "middle class" so they can pretend to fight for you, while ignoring the fight for the class you truly belong to; the working class or the working poor. Even if we start start on the right track by calling everyone "workers," we still divide them into blue collars and white collars. Or what about "upper" and "lower middle class"? Stop it. Just stop it. The division in multiple economic classes is a smokescreen.

There are two classes; either you have to work for a living, or you don't. Either you work for a capitalist or you are the capitalist. That doesn't mean that capitalists don't work, it just means that they don't have to because they exploit the labor of the working class. Two classes. That's it. So when you read or hear about "the shrinking middle class" or that "the middle class is under threat," you should recognize what it really means, namely that capitalists no longer feel the need to maintain a class they've purposely created in the first place. They've done the work. They've internalized in a large enough portion of the population the idea that "government is the problem," "government suppresses your freedoms," and "government has grown too large." That's so ... strange... Just think about this: if we were to live in a functional democracy, how on Earth can the government be too big? How is it that people do not recognize that a government that taxes the rich in order to provide for the poor and to maintain a basic living-standard for everyone, is a government that expands the freedoms of the overwhelming majority of the people? In a democracy, a government by and for the people, the people are the government. Is that too big? Then I guess you prefer things as they are now...

And too all you libertarians and anarcho-capitalists out there; if you want to get rid of government completely, it's about time to recognize that capitalism has to go. The accumulation of wealth in private hands necessitates government and always leads to a class of plutocrats. Property translates into power, so privately owned property becomes private power for the few who own a lot, and public property becomes power for ... the public. Always. It's not that hard to figure out. But I suspect you're secretly okay with that, that what you really want is not maximum freedom for the maximum amount of people, but hope to one day become a plutocrat yourself, the maximum amount of freedom for you. Maybe that's unfair of me to say and it certainly doesn't apply to all libertarians, but most assuredly to some.

It's sad that there is no middle class when in fact we should all be middle class. There should be no class division at all. But hey, it's too soon for that message; "It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism." - Mark Fisher

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