This morning I was handed a life-altering epiphany, courtesy of author Walter Mosley's appearance on Morning Joe. He said something that to me was the equivalent of someone stating calmly, "No, the Earth is round" when you have spent your entire life being afraid of falling over the horizon.
I had the show on in the background as I was going about my morning routines and making my customary snorting noises at Jim Cramer, Dan Senor and the other assorted Right Wing corporatist Have-More-But-Need-Yours-Too types they usually have on and not paying too much attention. Then someone I am completely unfamiliar with made an appearance who said one sentence that just knocked the wind out of me. I later discovered by Googling that the man who made the observation was author Walter Mosley. I have no transcript or Youtube to provide, so my quotation may be inaccurate, but here is my paraphrase of what he said:
"You have to at least understand what class you are actually in. If you ask most Americans today what class they inhabit they will say "middle class". Now to me middle class means that if you lose your job that life will continue as normal for at least a few months or a year. You will go to the same clubs, your children will attend the same school, etc. "Working class" is someone who if they lose their job, their life is completely altered from that day onward."
Let's look at his definition of "middle class". It essentially speaks of "comfort" and "resources" and "resilience". You have a comfortable life and if you lose your job, you have adequate resources(savings) to draw upon until you get a newer and potentially even better job. This perception is confident and optimistic about what life holds.
"Working class" is an acknowledgment that your life revolves around bringing home a paycheck and if that paycheck were to stop, there would be serious consequences to your 'lifestyle'.
Let's take a look at the "Average American Family" here, at VisualEconomics
So, to echo Walter Mosley, let's make an effort to at least understand what class we are truly a part of.
Many of us have buried into our subconscious the comfort giving mantra "I'm Middle Class, I'm Middle Class, I'm Middle Class", based on the evidence of our college educations, granite counter tops, trips to Disney World, iPhones and other Middle Class ephemera. Much of that evidence is on loan, courtesy of our credit cards and mortgages. If MC Americas' historical attributes are stability, resources, resilience and optimism, then MC Americans are akin to the last desperate herd of polar bears struggling to stay afloat among rising seas and melting icebergs. The cost of basic necessities is rising dramatically - shelter(rent), utilities, gasoline, food, tuition, health insurance, etc. while jobs are lost, homes are foreclosed, and wages stagnate.
The truth is, if we are lucky enough to be working we are "Working Class" and if we are unlucky enough to be unemployed dwindling resources and options, then we are sliding into "Poverty".
If we find the strength to tell ourselves the inconvenient truth of our class, could we then harness the further strength to call "Bullshit!" when we are told by media flacks and political hacks that we "must" cut federal deficits on the backs of the people while burning money with endless war and corporate subsidies and tax breaks for the wealthy?
Could we elevate the label "Working Class" to become the new majority identifier? Could we demand the wages and benefits that created the lost and lamented Middle Class in the first place? Would we stop supporting politicians whose raison d'etre appears to be speeding up our demise in order to feather their own political and financial nests?
We don't have to fear disappearing over the horizon, because we have already done it. We are Working Class, and possibly soon, Poor. There, I said it.
The world is round.