If we do not, can not, will not agree on some sort of common definition, at
least a basic one, then all further conversation and discussion is pointless
and impossible, because we won’t even remotely be talking about the same thing.
So many things in your ad hoc definition need their own definitions.
What is necessity?
What constitutes living as opposed to existing or surviving?
Is survival a viable reward for the working class?
What constitutes work?
How much freedom will your definition allow in choosing what kind of work one
will do?
A surgeon works. Is he working class? He has to work to live and to pay back
all those student loans.
But I don’t think he’d consider himself working class.
On Aug 27, 2016, at 1:20 PM, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Well, the answer is that we each should hold our own personal definition. My
definition is someone who *must* work to provide for himself (or herself), as
opposed to someone who does not need towork, but perhaps does anyway; nor
someone who doesn't work and still survives.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Hachey
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2016 10:03 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: what is the working class?
Hi all,
No doubt, trying to define what is the working class is not going to be easy.
One could argue that it means earning less than a certain income, let's say
$40,000.00. The flaw there is that one could be earning such income from
investments and not working at all. Also, picking a number for the income is
problematic at best.
Others might say that it means doing some sort of physical labor. But some
folks like plumbers and electricians earn a pretty good living doing physical
labor.
Still others might argue that it is based on one's education level. But we
all know folks who are relatively well educated who don't make much money and
we know other less educated types who earn more money. By the way, I hesitate
to use the word earn because it implies that all who get money deserve what
they get and that is certainly not true in these days of injustice and
tremendous income inequality.
Perhaps the best way to look at this is to take the approach that former
SCOTUS justice Potter took in trying to define what is obscenity. He said
that he couldn't define it specifically but that he knew what it was when he
saw it.
Bob Hachey
