More Terms that Drive Me Nuts (part 4).....According to Your Paycheck, the Government Determines if you are Really "Working"

“Working class” – In order to strike another blow for cultural pandering, we can no longer allow anyone in the Middle Class feel as though they are average in the world of financial achievement. Now, we use the term “Working Class.” This, of course, completely ignores the possibility that someone in this group may not even work (I am not sure, but I may have been in the working class myself for most of this year). Perhaps some 54 year old is not interested in reaching the “upper class” and chooses to live off of a modest flow of interest income (don’t forget from my earlier rant that this individual does not “earn” anything according to the government, but yet has a “capital gain”). So there you have it, according to our social pandering country, you can be unemployed, not “earn” a dime according to the government, and be considered “working class.” Why? Simply to avoid telling Joe six pack that he is considered financially average or “middle.”

Actually, this may be a little more than social pandering and has roots to socialism, much like other recent trends in American history. I am really not sure exactly when this term started to become hip in American culture, but my first recollection of hearing it on a regular basis was around 4 or 5 years ago. I remember when we used terms like “middle class” and “upper class” when describing someone’s level of financial achievement. Lest we forget, by design, all of this terminology is an attempt by the government to lump the taxpayers into groups so we can identify with political candidates. Of course, this practice is as old as the “have’s” and the “have not’s.” Such terms have roots to Karl Marx who was a master at applying labels to people based upon their income, with the ultimate goal of his great classless society. Marx used the term “proletariat” to describe the working class who physically produced goods and services for the bourgeoisie, who owned the means of the production. Again, the notion here being that only those who swing a tool, dig a hole, move bricks, etc., actually “work”, while those who take great financial risk to provide the means of their work are not actually “working” at all.

What on earth would politicians do if we passed the Fair Tax (H.R. 25) and they had no clue how much money we earned? Who would they target for votes? How would they determine who to target for wealth redistribution so they could find people to vote themselves money (as I mentioned in another posting, Ben Franklin noted this practice would “herald the end of the Republic”). In the mortgage business, it is called “redlining” and is illegal. In politics, it is called “campaigning.”

In an ironic twist that is probably news to social panderers, referring to someone as a “proletariat” was a very derogatory expression in the days of Karl Marx. Remember that next time you refer to someone as “working class.” I am also trying to figure out what we are supposed to call the “upper class” nowadays. Maybe something like…..”Filthy, arrogant, capital gaining, rich people.” Ohhhh boy….brother Karl would sure be proud.