Revisiting the use of "middle class" vs. "working class": The power of language

[malthaussen]

1. Yeah, I tend to agree.

We made up this middle-class thing as part of the onslaught against socialism, and it worked, too, convincing our working class that they were different from the rest of the world's. (American Exceptionalism in action!) And it lingers to this day: suggest that learning a trade is a good idea, and most of our people would deny it and take out a second mortgage to send the kid to college. And we have turned plumbers into "professionals," as if there were no difference between the skills needed to fix a toilet and fix a heart valve. Hell, just by saying that I'd probably be accused of degrading the working man -- as if, on the other hand, a surgeon and a plumber didn't both work for a living, and have much more in common with each other than either do with a politician.

It was a neat trick our rulers pulled off.

-- Mal