Working class/proletariat

[Comrade Yastrebkov]

There is probably an obvious answer to this question, but one aspect of it troubles me.

We normally define 'working class' by the type of job one does, or if they have a job at all. A capitalist (e.g. factory owner) lives by exploiting others, not working, so he isnt working class.
But then a doctor doesnt exploit anyone, and he/she is not working class either. Why? Because he is intellectual. Therefore do we define it by one's intelligence?
But then my family are intellectual, while we do not have much money. Therefore we would not be working class.
Many people describe 'working class' as the picture posted below. Is this a correct view?

[violencia.Proletariat]

Your class in Marxist perspective is determined by your relationship to the means of production. Therefore, you are proletarian if you have to sell your labor power in order to survive. For the "professionals" you speak of, they would be termed petit-bourgeois or petty bourgeois. They may employ a few but do not control substantial capital or portions of the means of production.

[Comrade Yastrebkov]

That would make the vast majority of the population proletariat, including my family and myself. Yet most people would not describe themselves as 'working class' - it often has a bad name and is used to describe people of low intelligence or income. How does this work? Because the majority of the country dont feel exploited do they?

[violencia.Proletariat]

Originally posted by Comrade [email protected] 3 2006, 05:58 PM
That would make the vast majority of the population proletariat, including my family and myself. Yet most people would not describe themselves as 'working class' - it often has a bad name and is used to describe people of low intelligence or income. How does this work? Because the majority of the country dont feel exploited do they?
Do you consider yourself middle class? Lots of people do. However they measure their class status by how much "stuff" they have, not their relationship to the means of production.

[bloody_capitalist_sham]

Hehe, I hope the future does not lie in the wearing of Burberry.

Chavtastic!

Btw, I think there is a lot of resentment in the UK about chavs, and they are often thought of by the general public as 'working class hooligans' and 'scumbags'. They are not by any stretch of the imagination the vast majority of working class people.

For anyone outside the UK, chavs is what some people call thugs. They like to wear Burberry and are amazing rappers!

[loveme4whoiam]

are amazing rappers!

:lol: :lol:

I have the same sort of feeling, although I'm coming around to seeing that class is irrelevant. My family is most definitely working class, but the kind of working class that encourages intellectual growth and social climbing (unlike the previously-mentioned chav menace). However, considering that lower-W/C, upper-W/C, middle class, it's all the same because we are all exploited so we are all part of the proletariat, perhaps the petty-bourgeoisie. And, as Comrade Yastrebkov pointed out, this category encompasses most of the population of nearly every "civilised" country.