The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept SecretThe United States is not a middle class society. Michael Zweig shows that the majority of Americans are actually working class and argues that recognizing this fact is essential if that majority is to achieve political influence and social strength. "Class," Zweig writes, "is primarily a matter of power, not income." He goes beyond old formulations of class to explore ways in which class interacts with race and gender.Defining "working class" as those who have little control over the pace and content of their work and who do not supervise others, Zweig warns that by allowing this class to disappear into categories of middle class or consumers, we also allow those with the dominant power, capitalists, to vanish among the rich. Economic relations then appear as comparisons of income or lifestyle rather than as what they truly are contests of power, at work and in the larger society.Using personal interviews, solid research, and down-to-earth examples, Zweig looks at a number of important contemporary social problems: the growing inequality of income and wealth, welfare reform, globalization, the role of government, and the family values debate. He shows how, with class in mind, our understanding of these issues undergoes a radical shift.Believing that we must limit the power of capitalists to abuse workers, communities, and the environment, Zweig offers concrete ideas for the creation of a new working class politics in the United States." |
Contents
The Class Structure of the United States | 9 |
What We Think about When We Think about Class | 35 |
Why Is Class Important? | 57 |
Looking at The Underclass | 73 |
Looking at Values Family and Otherwise | 91 |
The Working Class and Power | 111 |
Power and Globalization | 137 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adam Smith affirmative action AFL-CIO agenda American assets attack auto basic big business capitalism capitalist class Chapter Christian right Class and Power class families class identity class jobs Class Majority class politics class power Class Structure Clinton competition corporate Doug Henwood employers ethical experience family values gender Hispanics identity politics income increased individual interests labor force leaders less limits lives look managers ment middle class million moral NAFTA nomic occupations organizations Party person policies poor population poverty problem production professional racism Reagan rich sector self-interest share society standards Stanley Aronowitz Statistical Abstract Think about Class tion trade U.S. Department Underclass unions United United Auto Workers upward mobility Wagner Act Wall Street Journal wealth welfare women and minorities worker power workers York
Popular passages
Page 3 - For all their differences, working class people share a common place in production where they have relatively little control over the pace or content of their work, and aren't anybody's boss.
References to this book
Not-so-nuclear Families: Class, Gender, and Networks of Care Karen V. Hansen No preview available - 2005 |