On 1/30/02 4:00:00 PM, shaunasi sprain wrote:
>13. Assess the ability of
>Marxist theories of class, as
>summarized by Sen and So, to
>explain the class structure
>and class relations of
>contemporary capitalist
>society.
>
>
>
>This is how I see things.
>There definitely is a pyramid
>shape to our"class system". At
>the top are the small portion
>of extraordinarily wealthy
>people at the top who have
>most of our country's, most of
>the world's money/ resources
>in their control. I agree that
>the working class is the
>largest class of people and
>that the middle class is not;
>also that the nature of the
>middle class has changed ie:
>there was an old middle class
>which has become a new middle
>class.
>I think that the fact that
>people with PHD's are having
>to take working class jobs of
>what's now considered the new
>middle class jobs, often just
>lumped in under the working
>class title today, may change
>things for the better. I think
>that having well educated
>people in working class jobs
>will definitely change the
>workplace and employee moral
>for the better, this is
>because well educated persons
>who have learned to use their
>brains well by thoroughly
>exercising them, earning PHD's
>plus having good life
>experience, good sense,
>leadership skills, and the
>mindset of thinking more
>independently and used to
>being treated better with more
>respect, dignity, humaness
>etc. will make their mark in
>working class arenas by
>outsmarting the bearaucracy
>and insisting upon being
>treated well, fairly, with
>good pay, benefits etc. I
>think people who have gained
>more clout and status in our
>society are harder to brush
>off and put aside or merely
>appease patronize and humor.
>Persons who have earned PHD's
>also are more well connected
>with other high status persons
>and institutions in this
>country and the world, and
>often have more resources
>available to them, have access
>to more resources which they
>can utilize to effect positive
>change in their working class
>or new middle class places of
>employment. I think people
>without PHD's also can be as
>smart or smarter than people
>with PHD's too of course and
>effect as good or better
>positive changes in their
>workplaces.
>With many more educated
>persons having to take working
>class jobs, I see a ray of
>hope for better working class
>working conditions, of
>working class or new middle
>class work places being
>changed for the better, in my
>generation. I think well
>educated persons in working
>class employment postitions
>will more and more become
>internal advocates for workers
>rights and complete postive
>changes and improvements in
>every area of their working
>class environments. When a
>well educated person has other
>well educated friends with
>money, power and influence in
>U.S. and world communities ,
>this well educated person may
>be far more effective in
>getting management and owners
>of companies to listen to
>them, because management and
>owners will feel pressured to
>make the postive changes their
>well educated employee
>suggests or the well educated
>employee will make sure that
>her well educated and wealthy
>friends don't do business with
>this company. If companies are
>in danger of losing big
>contracts, business
>connections, etc. they will
>listen, to some degree.
>Well educated persons
>effecting positive change in
>their working class or new
>middle class workplaces may
>go farther to bring about
>positive changes than working
>class persons breaking into
>politics because once persons
>become politicians they have
>to play the
>government/politician game
>which may actually end up
>limiting their ability to
>effect the very positive
>changes they intially set out
>to make.
My question is if the new middle class increasingly become the working class, will the working class people become the completely poor and disenfranchised? If the workiong class becomes filled with "highly skilled & specialized laborers" of the middle class then do relatively unskilled laborers get pushed out of the worker class altogether or will the increasing middle class becoming the working class help to educate and inspire relatively unskilled working class laborers to get more education and better their employment positions, prospects, and quality of life?

>I still think that working
>class people ought to mobilize
>and organize peaceful
>protests, sit ins, boycotts,
>strikes, intiative petitions,
>unions and the like.

This is because these actions are effective and working class persons have created many if not all of our human and labor rights laws through these above means, attesting to the effectiveness of these means.


I was an initiative petitioner for a time. When I finished one of our intiative petition campaigns, I went to pick up my paycheck at the grassroots office that had been set up temporarily, in a temporary location, just for this campaign. The corporation who sponsored this intiative petitioning campaign kept putting me and others off and kept saying they'd pay us soon, set dates and not pay on the dates they set. My husband suggested that I take my story to the press to pressure the corporation to pay us and expose the corporations poor business practices. I decided to take this advice. First, I tried to go through local organizations to get paid, like the labor department, police department, legal advice etc., then my husband and I spoke with this corporation headquarters and let them know that we intended to take this story to the press. My husbands aunt worked for many years in a prominent position at the Associated Press. We mentioned her name and some of her colleagues from the associated press to this corporation. This made a difference because I and my coworkers were paid in full after this conversation. I don't know if I and my fellow employees would ever have been paid or when we'd be paid, if ever, if I, my husband, and a couple of others hadn't pressured the corporation to pay us. The corporation got its act together big time apparently after this. I visited their offices here locally a year or so later to find out how they were running their business and to find out about their current intiative petition campaigns. Their offices were very nice, modern, furnished, well-decorated professional, well staffed, and supplied with full, appropriate office accessories. There offices and business experienced an incredible upgrade from when I'd worked for them the year before at a different location in town, which was a little hole in the wall room with a couple of desks pencils, butcher board paper, colored pens,maps etc. very informal, relaxed, and grassroots. I almost couldn't believe all this. Sometimes when people speak up for what's right, everyone involved benefits. Sometimes it pays to speak up and stand up for rights.

>I think that the line between
>the middle class and working
>classes becoming blurred and
>blended is serving in some
>ways to help persons
>understand eachother better
>and work together,
to a great extent
because the middle class and the working class are all dealing with the same issues now. Instead of "middle class" issues and "working class" issues being different, today they are more the same than different or one and the same today.
>I saw
>evidence of this at the
>Seattle WTO. Here
>environmentalists and steel
>workers came together to
>object to free trade which
>would lift or completely
>eliminate many labor laws,
>worker and human rights laws
>which have been established by
>workers.
>I think that the working class
>is gaining power to overcome
>oppression by entering more
>and more into political arenas
>and I hope that the working
>class people who do this don't
>become corrupt.
>I also wantt o note that I
>think persons ought to start
>coming together more and more
>and creating cooperative
>sustainable communities to
>help stabilize a good future.
>Like, I wonder if Social
>Security, Food Stamps, Welfare
>etc. All these Human Service
>agencies will ever just
>collapse and become obsolete,
>deleted, no more, like will
>they just convenently be the
>government program to cut when
>our country needs to cut its
>budget. I think people ought
>to try to create sustainable
>lives outside of the
>government and relate with the
>government as little as
>possible. I think people ought
>to use their brain power and
>their brawn more to these
>means. Because even when
>people play the status, keep
>up with the jonses, follow the
>game, follow the program, pass
>al your tests with flying
>colors, get an excellent
>education and degree, spend
>oodles of money on having the
>nice cars and taking out all
>the school loans to get
>persons excellent education,
>people still might not be
>having the career they want
>and be way overqualified for a
>job they take sometimes out of
>sheer neccessity. Some persons
>are successful and well
>educated, do save, do relate
>well socially and the rest
>too. I just think that persons
>ought to become more self
>sufficient over all. People
>used to make and grow their
>own food and make their own
>clothes and machines and often
>had good lives. People used to
>think more, have more time to
>think and read, and relate
>more so in America years ago.
>I think we've just gotten way
>to artificial and
>commercialized as a society
>that what we value today has
>little to do with valuing our
>own true quality of life and
>that of our land.
>I don't want to turn time back
>nor do I think it can be
>turned back, barring an
>incredible natural disaster
>which wipes out our entire
>world civilization.
I don't know if I'd want to go back in time anyways. I like many of today's modern styles, designs, and creature comforts plus our society has come through so many hard times and our medical technology etc. has improved so much, that I'd rather live today than in any other time in history. We seem more mature, advanced, and civilized as a society today. I like living in this time. I just know so many important humane changes need to be established at this time in history. I think our society has the best chance for all persons to get along and work together now than any other time in history. This is one big reason I like this time in history, here in America, the best. We all need to learn to agree to disagree well and find good humane community friendly, family, kid-friendly ways to relate to and respect eachother's diversity in good reasonable, healthly safe ways. I'm a Christian believer and may not agree with others beliefs but I can be respectful of others beliefs within good reason, health, and safety, if they aren't mind, if I don't agree with them. All people want the best for themselves and others, want a high quality, cost effective, loving happy, meaningful fulfilling life. We all have this in common.
>I think
>that technology has availed us
>the means to progress forward
>in contientious sensible
>humane earth friendly ways.
>I think the way good changes
>are going to be made today in
>workplaces cities etc. is by
>big business/government
>realizing and implementing
>humane earth friendly
>conversions in architecture,
>communications, machines etc.
>Like, many factories are now
>being built to be toxin free
>and to well filter the toxins
>out of the environments, and
>to set up more flexible
>reasonable
>work schedules and working
>atmospheres that are more
>employee friendly, with more
>light, plants, soft places to
>stand for hours a day etc. And
>companies are finally starting
>to actually diversify energy
>on a larger scale now, out of
>knowledge, good will, and
>mostly, if not predominantly
>out of neccessity. I'm glad
>for these positive strides.
>I wonder what will happen to
>our work structures in the
>future with more and more
>machines taking over human
>jobs and with many U.S. jobs
>going overseas. I also wonder
>if our whole country will go
>completely bankrupt or
>something with outrageous
>debt?? Maybe the wealthy Bush
>family and Bill Gates families
>will bail us out? Maybe not.
>Maybe the middle/working class
>will somehow end up footing
>the bill which is almost
>always the case it seems.
>Additionally, I'm adding, I
>think that our welfare system
>and other human services
>although seriously flawed and
>need of reform in many ways
>are at least operating to help
>some for the better in
>reasonable ways. I think maybe
>human services needs to be
>deinstitutionalized and
>governmentalized and run more
>by persons who care one to
>another for eachothers good
>positive welfare. Their used
>to be groups like the Quakers,
>and the Underground Railroad
>people, abolishonists, and so many other
>groups who have come together
>to help one another, I think
>our society ought to do this
>more.
>Without these services being
>so institutionalized, their
>would be less red tape,
>administrative pay, pay
>raises, and bonuses to pay,
>corruption, misappropriation
>of funds, court battles,
>lawyers bills etc. etc.
>And, as for churches, well why
>don't they stay small and
>really help communities and
>persons good positive welfare
>instead of becoming big
>corporations like the vatican?
>Maybe each excessively wealthy
>person could give 10% of their
>incomes to the people who need
>it directly, instead of to a
>church corporation.
>I heard of one wealthy person
>who in light of this world
>trade center bombing went and
>got a list of families who
>were efeected by the world
>trade center and called the
>families on the list
>individually and asked what
>they could do to help and then
>helped them. This seems a lot
>better than running their
>charity through a big charity
>corporation like the Red Cross
>or United Way. I like the
>commercials I see for the Red
>Cross and the United Way and I
>like the positive stories I
>hear about both but I wonder
>about the stories of corrupt I
>always am hearing in the news
>etc. about these corporations.
>Some of the obstacles and
>injustices to overcome, which
>I see in many workplaces is:
>double standards, alterior
>motives, hidden agendas,
>inappropriate sexual and
>conversational overtures (
>like 12 hr.
>days of working with people
>engaged in lame shop talk all
>day etc. and bosses who
>befriend you and pretend as if
>they're your best friend or
>your brother, then later
>change the nature of the
>relationship that has been
>presented and established by
>the boss, by hitting on you.
>Some people are so
>ridiculous.)
>Andcrummy benefits, low pay,
>long hours, and really
>inefficiently run non-employee
>friendly workplaces.
>I really can't believe that in
>this day and age women are
>still being paid less than men
>for the same job! I also can't
>believe that women didn't even
>become recognized in high
>professional executive
>positions until 1972.

I have to add that I think I am one of the most thankful, grateful people on Earth for all the good and beauty in and of life, of others, of myself, family, of God.

Signed, Shaunasi D. Sprain