Where Rick Santorum and I Come to Similar Conclusions

Slagging my former senator, Rick Santorum, is a somewhat regular feature on this blog--as in I take a shot whenever I can get one in. But I will say that he does have a point, here, in that language matters.  I have my own issues with the term "middle class". Basically, while he sees "middle class" as a term that is too divisive, breaking up the American people into economic groups as if it were a caste system which I agree, is totally not in keeping with what I like to think of as the genius of the United States; I, however, see the term "middle class" as too inclusive. Straight up. "Middle class" has come to mean whatever the user of that term has decided it means, and it means less and less as a result.

"Middle class" can be aspirational if you are definitionally at or near the poverty line. "Middle class" can include people we would think of as possibly "investor class" or "wealthy" if we took into account their assets, not just their earnings. But from looking at the statistical data points when posting my "Know your Class War"  series, I've come to the conclusion that there is less class mobility in this country and that we are kind of heading for a kind of caste system. And as the middle class has retreated in some respects, I'd humbly like to reintroduce more widespread usage of the term "working class". Because most of us don't have so much to tide us over if we find ourselves jobless. And any of us could.

By bringing back "working class", maybe we'd become more amenable as a society to talking about unions and workers' rights. By talking about the "working class", I think we'd be better able to discuss the value of work and why workers should be paid a living wage for what they do, and recognize that people deprived of work aren't lazy but cut out of the privilege of satisfactorily gainful employment.

This isn't to say Santorum and I agree, at all. Only we've come to a similar conclusion about the uselessness of the term "middle class." Otherwise, he's full of signifying shit and a total hypocrite, to boot.