40 years of Class Revolution in the United States?

[Vogel]

When you think of a 1950’s or 60’s family, where the father says “honey I’m home”, I think of feudalism, which as always, is held together by love and loyalty. The man is the lord, the woman the serf.
When you wake up, the wife doesn’t just make her side of the bed, the husband doesn’t help her make the bed, the wife does the whole thing. The wife uses her surplus labor, the husband appropriates.
When the wife makes dinner, she doesn’t just cook a meatloaf for herself, she makes some for the husband. Again, a bit more obviously now, the wife uses her surplus labor, the husband appropriates.
When the family gets dirty clothes, I know you can see where this is going, the wife washes not just hers, but the husband’s as well. Where is the husband? Well, he doesn’t do that.
No, the husband is working in capitalism, being exploited. When he comes home, he becomes the exploiter. What does he do with the money he gets from his job? He uses it to buy a new washing machine, a new stove, a new bigger and better bed.
The husband secures the conditions for this class system.
When the women suddenly enter the labor force in vast number in the 1970’s, well now they are being exploited doubly! At home and at work. That’s a type of stress no one could or should tolerate, and some women didn’t, and some women found ways to deal with the stress.
Now the husband can't get his class and personal interests fulfilled because the wife is too tired and stressed.
So divorce rates are sky high and American women consume more psychotropic drugs than any other class of people in the world.
The result is this: there has been a class revolution. Now, we have More U.S. Couples Living Together Instead of Marrying- http://health.usnews.com/health-news...ying-cdc-finds
The Verdict on Cohabitation vs. Marriage- http://marriageandfamilies.byu.edu/i...habitation.htm
For us to ignore this, to think as if “it’s not the workplace so Marx doesn’t apply”, is unwise, stupid, and ignorant. We need to look at this type of stuff in all our countries, use it to talk to people about their lives, society, and culture. Otherwise, our potential for success is bleak.

[rottenapple]

I think about this situation as well, but moreso get hung up on the fact that now both parents HAVE to work to sustain their class and position instead of before the woman just working because she wanted to. And I find this as one of the biggest problems with our capitalistic system today and the problem of income inequality.

As a Psychology student, I know where your coming from with the fact that mental illness rates have increased since the feminist movements began and how women began taking more psychotropic medicine. It's a shame, because the anti feminists, which I don't neccisarily disagree with, blame the raise in mental illness on these changes in the womans role outside the home when it more likely is that women are forced to do double duty with a career and domestically. Also, the rate of mental illness has just increased across the board because of many factors including awareness and lobbying from the pharmaceutical industries to sell their drugs.

But as I was saying, I take this more as a problem in our economic system. I believe it would be in most of society's interest to have one partner bring home an income while the other works on domestic duties, and this goes along with the increase in mental illness in children and adolescence and the dramatic rise we have seen in ADHD. Kids cant receive the same quality of parenting with both adults working full time. Be it the father or the mother working makes no difference to me, as long as all parties are happy.

[tuwix]

You apparently confuse women rights with class struggle. I don't say what is more important, but you confuse. And I've never been in the USA, but from what I read this country, I think in class issues they are going backward and some even say about neo-feudalism and neo-slavery...

[contracycle]

Vogel, have you read Engel's book Then Origin of the Family, Private Property, & the State? It's certainly not true that Marxist analysis has been applied only to the workplace, and in this work Engels makes the argument that the oppression of women is directly related to the apparatus of class oppression.

[Vogel]

I shall find the book, or if unlucky read it off the computer .

The problem with the mother getting a job, though, is that she needs an entire new wardrobe, new car and gas since the States does horribly with public transport. All told, the costs balance out.