What is "working class"?

[TBF]

Daily Kos had an excellent article yesterday on class and I wondered whether folks on DU read this article. Do you agree with the article? Have your perceptions about class changed, especially in light of the economy the past few years? I grew up working class and defined myself that way because my dad worked in a factory. When I graduated from college, however, I had desk jobs and considered myself "middle class" as the article describes. It took awhile for me to understand that if you are still relying on a paycheck (even one that is relatively healthy) for your livelihood you are in fact working class, no matter how you dress for your job. Now with so many folks losing jobs, working temp, and having a hard time finding work at previous income levels I would imagine many are reconsidering what it means to be a certain class.

Here is an excerpt:

The Standard American Conception of the Working Class

The predominant consensus seems to be that "working class" pertains to the kind of work you do and how much money you make. Someone who belongs to the working class would thus be a person who engages in physical labor and who probably makes between 15 and 40K a year. By contrast, someone would be "middle class" if they worked primarily with their minds, I suppose, and who made between 40K and 250K. While the upper class would consist in those who make above this amount. In my view, the amount of money one makes and the sort of work one does are largely irrelevant to what constitutes the working class. While it's certainly true that most people who make this amount of money and who do physical labor are working class, this isn't what makes the working class the working class.

What Classes Really Are

What, then, constitutes the working class? The deciding factor as to whether you are working or capitalist class has nothing to do with the sort of work you do or how much money you make, but rather pertains to how you make your money. A working class person is anyone who works for a paycheck. If you have an employer that pays you a paycheck, then you're working class. It as simple as that. It doesn't matter whether you're building bridges and highways, whether you're a cook in a restaurant, whether you're working in an office. All of these things are secondary. All that matters is that you sell your labor for a paycheck.

By contrast, anyone who employs others as their way of making money and anyone who predominantly-- your 401 or 403 probably doesn't qualify you as a member of the capitalist class because it is unlikely that it is your primary source of income --lives on money made from the investment of their money belongs to the capitalist class. Your doctor down the street is probably working class unless he has a private practice. The owners of Wal-Mart are capitalist class. Capitalists are people that either purchase the labor of others to make their money or that invest their money to make their money. They are the ones that own the business and the means by which products are produced.

Read the entire article here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/09/974610/-What-is-the-Working-Class