What are the economic classes in the United States?

You hear people refer to classes in the United States, even Eminem does (Middle America / now it's a tragedy / now it's so sad to see / an upper class city / having this happening). But the definitions are different. You hear of the middle class, the poor, the lower middle class, the upper middle class, the rich, white collar workers, blue collar workers, the working poor, the working class, the idle class, skilled labor, unskilled labor, professionals, yuppies, the professional-managerial class. Of course, the US has a different class structure than countries where say, peasants, make up a good percentage of the population. There are some who say different political movements tell different stories, and I think some of the stories are deisgned to be deceptive, especially that we have a giant middle class, with some poor (and of course lazy, and possibly genetically inferior) people at the bottom, as well as rich people who got to the top by working hard and being smart.

What do you think the class structure is in the US, how would you define the definition of each class, and what percentage of the American population would you say is in each class?

Us: Less than 200k/year 98%
Them: More than 200k/year 2%

Us: More than $50/day -- 5%
Them: Less than $50/day -- 95%

Who is "Us"?

Did he?

Let the "Thems" pay the "Us" prices, and maybe I'll feel sorry for them.

Have you ever tried to by a TV in the "developing world"? Same price we pay here. Just that it is a day or two or three worth of work, rather than a months or years. Gas is basically the same (more sometimes!). Cars, computers, calculators, phones, electricity, etc., are all at least as expensive as in the good ole USofA.

Are you simply being argumentative, or do you really not know this?

"Are you simply being argumentative, or do you really not know this?"

Sorry, I'm a little too focussed on keeping a roof over my head and juggling my bills to spend much time worrying about how deprived the "developing world" is because they have to work "years" to get Dish Network.

TV is not a nessecity. Nor are computers, phones, etc. How about food, shelter, cooking fuel? What about a thread I caught the other week where I was told that I could live comfortably for the rest of my life with a bankroll of only 50 kilobucks in some 3rd-world pesthole? Was that person mis-informed, too?

They brush everyone else under the table.

He defines 9 classes. The names are his, the numbers mine.

Top - out of sight. Probably only 0.1%.
Upper - top 1%.
Lower Upper - top 5%
-------------------
Upper Middle - top 10% - 5%
Middle - top 50% - 10%
Lower Middle (almost nonexistent, destroyed) N/A
------------------
Upper lower (high prole) Above 30% - 50 % of the population
Middle lower (mid prole) Above 10% - 30 %
Low Prole Above 5% - 10%
-----------------
Bottom out of sight (welfare, prison) bottom 5%

Neat book, by the way. Very tongue in cheek.

But you forgot X - those that refuse to be part of the class system.

Wish he'd update it.

Pcat

Yes, I'd like to see what he thought of the present state of society.

...that I had ever heard.

The middle class does all of the work, pays all of the taxes. The upper class does none of the work, pays none of the taxes. The lower class is there to scare the living shit out of the middle class, keep them showing up to those jobs...

It only makes sense to categorize people in their relationship to capital ("the means of production and exchange"). If you own enough capital to live off, you're a capitalist. If you don't, you're part of the working class.

My view of the American class system is:

wealthy (or capitalists as you call them) <1% of the population
managerial-professional 20-30% of the population
working class 65-75% of the population
poor non-workers 5% of the population

With the two most important classes in terms of political changes being the wealthy and the working class. The white collar class is powerful and important, but ultimately not as important as the ruling class, or the largest class. The poor are not capable of doing much in and of themselves, but they make a great object for fear and loathing among the working class, something we saw throughout the Reagan era.

I would say in the late 1990s I was part of the managerial-professional class, something Barbara Ehrenreich talks about in her book "Fear of Falling". So many jobs are going overseas, given to people here on work visas, or, as Doug Henwood said in the Nation recently, simply being automated and disappearing with no new job to replace them, I would say I am once again in the working class. My unemployment just ran out and I am going to look for a blue collar job just to have some money in my pocket.

It's interesting Paul Fussell says there's no American lower middle class. Some books I've been reading on fascism have called it a lower middle class phenomenom.

and masters and slaves is the best correlation. Least you think you are in the master class put yourself in this situation and ask what the possible outcome would be.

You are driving a car and crash it it's your fault and you kill one of the slave class as a result of the crash.

If you think there is a chance you might have to spend some time in jail for manslaughter you my fellow slave are one of us, no mattter how much money you have. A true master knows there is no chance of ever spending time in jail for breaking any law.

In the UK, the 'objective' definition is normally this one, based on the job of the chief earner of a household:
A = professional, senior managerial
B = middle managerial, senior clerical/technical
C1 = junior clerical/technical
C2 = skilled manual
D = semi-skilled, non-skilled manual
E = unemployed, casual workers, (basic) pensioners

These are often grouped as A,B,C1 = middle class; C2,D,E = working class (though 'white collar' and 'blue collar' might fit those groupings better). Another grouping, which roughly divides the country into quarters, is AB, C1, C2, DE.

But the people themselves don't always divide themselves the same way - see http://www.mori.com/mrr/2002/c020816.shtml .

Does the USA use similar categories? Or do the surveys just divide up by income? The UK researcher above defends the British use of job thus:
"Market researchers in most countries use some variable, such as income or educational level, to grade their respondents into different social levels, but Britain is unusual in tying that classification specifically to "class". We do it that way, of course, because it works - over the years we have found the social grade classification to a better discriminator for market research purposes than income or education, or than the other available class schemas, being well related both to social attitudes and consumer behaviour."