My parents are wealthy, however I am one of three and by the time they go there won’t be much left. I’m self employed (sort of, technically I’m classed as an independent contractor by a company really ought to be my employer, I do not employ anyone and I do not own my own means of production ) and clothes and plastic surgery are business expenses, they are things I need to do to work. It is similar to say truck drivers who receive what appears to be a very large paycheck but when you subtract maintenance, fuel and so on, it is much smaller. I make a Semi-okay living but there are a lot of expenses to doing what I do, equipment, having to look a certain way or I wouldn’t be able to work, and so on. Are dock workers working class? Cause they make like twice what I do a year and have benefits. As to perfume, I get a lot of gift cards.
Working class isn’t just about a paycheck, it’s a relationship to capital. Middle class is a silly and deceptive category, when Marx defined the bourgeoisie as the middle class it was as owners of the means of production, above proletarians and below the aristocracy. I do not make a living by owning stuff instead of doing stuff, I am not an employer or in any of the professions (doctor, lawyer etc). Sex workers are generally classed as lumpen proletariat. Because I lack the capital to own the means of production, I am a proletarian. Because my work is unstable and has no (and in fact may have negative) social capital I am a lumpenproletarian.
This whole thing smacks of “BUT YOU’RE NOT REALLY POOR IF YOU OWN A CELLPHONE” logic (I’m not living in poverty but “You’re not working class if you own nice clothes and perfume” comes from the same logical place)
In terms of modern socioeconomic classes, a middle class person is someone who can save, invest, and get through a small crisis (suddenly needing a new laptop, taking a pet to the vet, missing ten days of work for the flu) without serious lifestyle disruption. Homeownership and the ability to afford surgery are definitely markers of being middle-class socioeconomically. There are a lot of cultural aspects to it, too, but it’s mostly the psychological and material benefits of relative stability that separate the middle class from the working class socioeconomically, if not in Marxist terms.
I have 36 bucks in my bank account and haven’t been able to take a day off work since January of 2014 and I’m late on my mortgage because I had to get my wisdom teeth out and couldn’t cam in addition to doing phone work… so no, also like models of class that lump educated professionals in with secretaries are a bit silly. Like I think you’re getting “Not poor” confused with “middle class” you can be working class without living in poverty. Working class includes people living in poverty, but isn’t exclusively them.
Other people define it as those without college degrees (which is a silly definition if you ask me, but what do I know, I’m a highschool drop out)
I’m working class, not underclass or working poor. There are more gradations than you’re using and this is silly. Sex work can be defined as pink collar (it sure as shit ain’t white collar)
Zweig, Michael (2001). The Working Class Majority: America’s Best Kept Secret. New York, NY: IRL Press.ISBN 0-8014-8727-7.
Thomas B. Edsall (June 17, 2012). “Canaries in the CoaMine” (Blog by expert). The New York Times.
Thoughts From The Peacock Angel 