Mainstream framing of class as income and status obscures the working class’s existence

Evidence

“Class” is often used to describe differences in wealth, self-perception, and social status. This can be misleading. Income levels, education, lifestyles, and consumption patterns are parameters used to divide the population in a society where belonging to the so-called middle class is considered to be the healthy norm, with some excesses represented on one side by the small number of millionaires at the top of the social pyramid and on the other side by the group of poor people living at the bottom. According to the dominant narrative, the majority of us belong to the middle class, whose crisis is recounted with bitterness and disappointment, while the very idea of the existence of a working class is dismissed as a rusty, useless notion of a dead and buried ideology. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 84

Categorization

• DEFINE: Contrasts the dominant middle-class self-image against the dismissed working-class category, establishing Mattei’s terminology.
• XREF: connects to: The dominant middle-class narrative obscures the existence of a working class in industrial societies. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 84; Treasury economists framed taxation as forced abstention on the working class — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 912; The economists’ classless models concealed openly classist beliefs — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1306 (+2 more)