The Marxian conception of class refers to a particular relation to the economic foundations of society. The liberal idea most people think of, where consumption levels determine classes, isn't really useful for analysis of production relations.
Thinking historically, around the turn of the century new relations to the means of production arose, and Marxists spent the 1950s-1980s trying to theorize the nature of new entity(ies) that had appeared in capitalism. The Ehrenreichs "define the Professional-Managerial Class as consisting of salaried mental workers who do not own the means of production and whose major function in the social division of labor may be described broadly as the reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations," who constitute something like 10-25% of positions in the West. They offer a historical-material analysis of the class, a theory of its development, its contradictions, antagonisms, and so on, all very neat and theoretical.
TBH, middle classes shouldn't exist. They inevitably create a lower class and and worsen the miserable atrocity of their existence, and, according to the PMC theory, keep capitalism in place. It's better to have rid of them (as an institution and as a social relation, not as humans) and let workers deal with capital directly, on our terms.
I think in some very closely related way this is what I think needs to be done with the political system in place today. I have believed that gutting the whole of the managerial class (politicians) and just leaving the people who actually do the work in place would solve the problem. Take citizens out of a loto every 2 years to replace this framework and make sure that they get to freely go back to the life they had before performing their civic duties. I do not see the need for any politician and certainly not a president. I don't follow or buy into a "leader" mentality. It's a simple matter to set a country wide voting system for Country matters following by state and local where you are expected as a citizen to vote on matters that are important to the well being of the country and so on. No lobbyists because if you want to play monopoly you're on your own!
The Marxian conception of class refers to a particular relation to the economic foundations of society. The liberal idea most people think of, where consumption levels determine classes, isn't really useful for analysis of production relations.
Thinking historically, around the turn of the century new relations to the means of production arose, and Marxists spent the 1950s-1980s trying to theorize the nature of new entity(ies) that had appeared in capitalism. The Ehrenreichs "define the Professional-Managerial Class as consisting of salaried mental workers who do not own the means of production and whose major function in the social division of labor may be described broadly as the reproduction of capitalist culture and capitalist class relations," who constitute something like 10-25% of positions in the West. They offer a historical-material analysis of the class, a theory of its development, its contradictions, antagonisms, and so on, all very neat and theoretical.
Here's the article, serialized in two parts. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/collections/id_594/?q=professional+managerial+class&search-scope=id_bdr%3A26166
TBH, middle classes shouldn't exist. They inevitably create a lower class and and worsen the miserable atrocity of their existence, and, according to the PMC theory, keep capitalism in place. It's better to have rid of them (as an institution and as a social relation, not as humans) and let workers deal with capital directly, on our terms.
I think in some very closely related way this is what I think needs to be done with the political system in place today. I have believed that gutting the whole of the managerial class (politicians) and just leaving the people who actually do the work in place would solve the problem. Take citizens out of a loto every 2 years to replace this framework and make sure that they get to freely go back to the life they had before performing their civic duties. I do not see the need for any politician and certainly not a president. I don't follow or buy into a "leader" mentality. It's a simple matter to set a country wide voting system for Country matters following by state and local where you are expected as a citizen to vote on matters that are important to the well being of the country and so on. No lobbyists because if you want to play monopoly you're on your own!