[initially posted Thursday May 3, 2007 - 11:23pm (EDT) on 360.yahoo.com by me, but they are soon closing the 360 site]
We have class envy and class war, and perhaps we can't even measure class. As a person that studies math measurement or the ability to say this one is different than that and they go in this order is very important. Ive noticed at times it's hard to see a meaningful way to order people by class. See page 5 and 6 in the e-reprint of an article that initially inspired me in this thought at http://homepages.wmich.edu/... I first saw this published by the ENC (now closed by Bush the Infamous).
I recently wondered if their was a way to objectively say that this person is rich and that person is not. Is it net worth? Is their a dollar value that we could pin down? Would it change with inflation? Or is it income that should be the measure? Or is it both? Or... is it a non dollar measure?
I began to think recently that by assets, I could be easily mistaken for upper middle class, by income, my family is lower middle class to poor. My net worth is very low due to all my debt. I wasn't always like this, but somehow after having kids and trying to insure that they have the best opportunities of education and social connections, my family has become poor.
I realized that I am trapped economically. I have stuff, and maintain a decent life for my family, but any big financial hardship could put me out of it. I have to suck-up to keep my job; I have to be a yes-man because I don't have enough economic power to stand alone and make good long term plans for a fulfilled life.
That, I believe, is how to separate rich from non-rich. If you are trapped and have to do shitty things because you can't afford to say, "take this job and shove it," you are non-rich. It's the idea of sovereignty, being in control over ones own destiny that separates us, and not the amount of stuff we have.
It makes me wonder that if instead of redistributing wealth to make the poor better off, maybe their could be an informational, managerial solution to the problem of being trapped. A network if you will, of opportunities that would allow people that feel so helplessly trapped to find other places to go and put some much needed bargaining power into the realm of us non-rich people.
