POL 100 Sec A050
How do liberals think of social classes? How do socialists think of social classes?
Socialists see society as divided into two social classes; those who labor and those who rule; those who sell their labor and those who own the means of production. The inherent strength of the working class is that it has tremendous social power. This is not lost to socialists. The socialists can claim victory in a system other than the capitalist for-profit system. The conclusion of a struggle for a socialist society is building a truly egalitarian society. But the greedy capitalists will not readily give up their system of profit and that’s why they have their shock troops, the Repressive State Apparatus, or RSAs, to protect private property. Bourgeois society lends itself to the idea of a hierarchy of classes; low class, middle class and upper class with sub-tiers but Marxists have a difference.
Liberals have a different view of society but they see their role as guardians of the capitalist system i.e. maintaining the status quo, and they preach reformist politics like Senator Elizabeth Warren and the former First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) Hillary Clinton. I rather like the analogy of class by liberals as akin to “rungs on a ladder”. The changes championed by the liberals, like, for example, the 1973 United States Supreme Court (USSC) ruling on abortion, are easily reversible under capitalism. In 2022 with the Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a woman’s right to an abortion is not guaranteed.
2. What are the two ways in which class is different from social hierarchies?
Many people have a sense of social hierarchies as they perceive them in our society. They base this hierarchy on, for example, income, wealth, power, culture and prestige. They consider some as lower class, working class, middle class, upper class and ruling class. They also have gradations to these “different” classes, for example, upper-middle class, but this understanding of hierarchy differs from the more precise class structure in society as posed by the socialists. The liberal view is imprecise. To be a worker means being dependent on a capitalist who owns the means of production. Think about Henry Ford who owned a motorcar factory and who probably posted “wanted for hire” signs/advertisements in the newspaper. Being a capitalist also means engaging in some form of exploitation. Americans faced brutal working conditions, for meager wages, toiling in coal mines after the Civil War. Henry Ford also owned several coal mines in West Virginia in the 1920s. Just as workers depend on the capitalists for their daily bread, the capitalists depend on workers to generate profits but the workers develop social power and when there is class struggle they can withhold their labor and strive for better wages and working conditions.
3. What are the two implications for politics if we follow the socialist understanding of class?
The capitalists, like Hearst Communications, own the printed media and they can put their spin on the news. The television network owners including the Walt Disney Company and Fox Corporation speak their truth which is the same as the “bosses” truth. The network owner’s class interests differ from the interests of the working class because they speak for the capitalist class. The socialist understanding of class translates into the eventual creation of an egalitarian society where those who labor, rule. Under socialism, the monopolies which own large tracts of arable land, and which hire poor immigrants, many of whom may be undocumented, can be broken up into smaller plots of land and given to the tillers.
Instead of dumping poisonous waste into underrepresented communities, the socialists’ understanding of class will lead to better waste management. Decisions will be articulated in the interest of the working class, and will result in a cleaner and safer planet. These are the political implications if we follow the socialist understanding of class.
