Did Marx underestimate the power of the middle class ?

[Warpy]

26. Yes he did, for a couple of reasons

First, there was relatively little middle class in his day. It was made up of upper managers, a few sought after people like doctors and barristers, and little else. Everyone else trudged through life, working long hours so everybody in the family could eat, with few higher aspirations than that.

Second, the type of middle class the US enjoyed after WWII was an artificial creation of the New Deal and unprecedented in the history of the world. Marx didn't consider that government intervention would scrape money off the top and recirculate it at the bottom and that it would create a large stable middle class of skilled craftsmen, small business owners, and middle managers.

Third, the large and stable middle class did act as a buffer between labor and owner and probably saved capitalism while it was allowed to flourish simply by its stability and promise of comfort for anyone who played by the rule book of college followed by corporate career.

Now there is no buffer at all between the hoarding class and the relatively poor and more poor every day are starting to notice what has been done to them and by whom.