Social Class in U.S.A.

November 28th, 2007 Posted in Social Class

Advantage, in pejorative usage sometimes called exploitation, is the dark shadow of social class. It introduces into the relationships of equal citizens a strong element of inequality. Our civilization, our religious and moral sensibilities cast an uncomfortable pall over such disparities. In mitigation we consistently offer alms, hospitality, sharing. We engage in philanthropy and welfare and amelioration.

We are all against a tilted playing field. We all hate the fix. Head start in a race is rejected. We disdain deep pockets, silver spoons, nepotism.

Yet the flip side of the disadvantage that we all love to hate is precisely advantage.

From the socialist side legal advantage is the social class front. In our era of industrial production the two antagonistic classes emerge, identified as owners and workers. And the advantage-disadvantage tension is direct. One takes from the other. It is not windfall or luck. It is a deliberate pattern maintained at the center of economic life. It is a morally ambiguous taking of value from the other.

The counter argument, the concept of the capitalist way, is based on necessity. The advantage is required to move to industrial production, where the use of science and advanced technology needs investment, initiative, management, planning, decision–what we have called the cadre functions. The hierarchy is inescapable. In any case the ownership advantage is balanced by a risk of failure in the open market.

With free individual and free market the possibility of social mobility opens. The race for the top is continuous. Any advantage will be temporary and balanced over the long run. If you do not move up today, there is always hope for tomorrow. Lack skill, training, energy, try the lottery, the casino.

So the question of the social class organization in the U.S.A. at present turns on viewpoint. The democratic capitalists say there are no social classes. The democratic socialists say that such classes exist and will be active to the extent that members become consciously aware of their situation.

The success of the capitalists ideology in the U.S.A. is almost complete. Any discussion of social class among journalists and the people in general and even among sociologists centers on relative income, style of life, moral rectitude. Consciousness of class identity, solidarity, shared life chances is minimal except for a few wise old capitalists and socialists with fond recollections of long past struggles.

The American trade union movement, one of three sides of working class activism, is in retreat. Large drops in membership. Concession of rights previously gained. Bleak outlook.

The other two sides representing worker’s class interests are socialist political parties which now are small and quiet and with minimal success even when mixed within and allied with the broader based environmental and green parties. And then the left intellectuals hiding in the cellars of academia or in the far corners of media empires who try for conceptual invention and clarity and continue carrying the word and the light (usually under a bushel.)

The closest America has gotten to a social democratic way was with the liberal New Deal during the Great Depression. Ever since, there has been a resurgence of conservatism with a constant rolling back of the program instituted then. The conservative spin and reality have been on the rise for over half a century.

A little background. The socialist-liberal critique of capitalism had a strong basis in fact during the 19th and up through the first half of the 20th centuries. Strong witnesses of the desperate working and living conditions of ordinary people can be found in Dickens, in parts of D.H. Lawrence, in Bernard Shaw, in Maxim Gorky among others. Child labor, low wages for heads of households, debtor’s prison, abusive orphanages, extensive poverty among the elderly, transportation of felons, corporal punishment and executions, appalling crime rates, prostitution, begging as an occupation, cheap gin and so on. Imperialism abroad and unsafe, unhealthy working conditions all around. And do not forget racism, anti-feminism and all that.

Some considerable improvements since through democratic process and electoral success of liberal and socialist parties. Threat of a revolutionary turn by a unified international worker’s movement. Agitation and work stoppages by trade unionists. The threat of the general strike. One parries the challenge by revisions and adjustments. Conditions improve in any case.

Back and forth like the ball in a tennis rally, capitalists expanding of ownership in industrial works through mutual funds and the retirement funds of workers. The identity of the owner-capitalist no longer so stark and obvious. Retirement benefits from social security. Laws setting a minimum wage and trade union rights. Welfare and unemployment programs. A wage floor below which no one is to fall.

Then direct evasive action against labor demands for higher wages and benefits. Run away plants and industries going off shore. Exporting the working class itself. A blind eye to droves of illegal and less expensive workers across porous borders. A global economy in which to dodge the falling rate of profit on investments. Withdrawal of colonial imperial administrations. Formation and recognition of third world countries.

Through all of this to do the economists improve their understanding of the economic system and have gained positions throughout the society where they monitor and suggest actions over tax policy, interest rates, supply of money. They set up bail-outs and act decisively against serious failures.

Over recent time the weakening of democratic socialist and liberal parties has become obvious. The abuses of Stalinist internationalism becomes a horrible example. Communist parties failed their members and the working class as a whole by commitment to an alien Stalinist policy. The use of dictatorial parties and cadres in power without oversight or electoral test. All invite skepticism among the people.

So the question of social class in the U.S.A? Yes an industrial labor force does exist in blue and white collar sectors. The numbers involved are diminishing, class consciousness and solidarity are low and dropping.

But at the same time the conservative ideology has been so successful that the argument of established property rights as the basis of modern and post-modern economic life is hardly recognized by the people. Emphasis upon individual’s rights and liberties and free markets is almost universal.

The very success of this end-of-social-class position tends to blind, at least in public discussion, analytical understanding of societies where social class is more immediately in play.

We have attempted here a non-traditional sociological sketch of social class in U.S.A. It is incomplete but it points to the obvious role of ideology.

A few more notes upcoming on social class. See you later.