From Pine View Farm

Class Consciousness 0

At the Portland Press-Herald, Victoria Hugo-Vidal argues that have forgotten what the phrase, “working class,” means. Here’s one example she cites (emphasis added):

I was thinking about class drag, and class in general, because of Rep. Jared Golden. After I wrote a column about his out-of-character Twitter student loan forgiveness rant, Golden published a post to the online platform Substack, saying, “Recently, a political opinion writer described me as living in the cocoon of my present work in politics and my past service in the military and, therefore, out of step with the working class. This fragment of my work history ignores the fact that I spent many years working at the business that belongs to my mother, and before her, to her father.”

(snip)

But more important is Rep. Golden’s second sentence, implying that having worked for his family business puts him more in step with the working class. Here’s the important thing to remember: Working a job does not make you working-class. We’re talking about a multigenerational family business (a golf course, specifically) here. The profit that business generates goes to the family that owns the business. The owners dole out part of those profits to their employees in the form of salaries or wages. Those employees who do the labor are the working class. Not the owners.

Methinks the entire piece is worthy of your attention.

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