America’s expanding proletariat

There is no official definition of “working class” – an economist might point to a certain income bracket or education level, while a Marxist might say it includes anyone who has to sell their labor to survive. But in the US now, the label seems to extend well beyond the traditional industrial proletariat – according to the poll, nearly half of college graduates and adults earning more than $200,000 a year consider themselves “working class.” At first gloss that seems strange, but it reflects the fact that concerns about affordability and social mobility now span a much broader spectrum of income and education brackets.