An odd quirk of American socialism is that it has embraced a class analysis based not on occupation (i.e. relationship to the means of production), but on tax brackets.
And to be clear, I think these two types of class analysis each have advantages and disadvantages...
On the disadvantage side, American socialism doesn't have a good way of thinking about the difference between a $10millionare car dealership owner, a $10millionaire software startup owner, and a $10millionaire lawyer.
And this is an important political difference!!
And this is an important political difference!!
On the advantage side, thinking about class in terms of tax brackets lends itself to sensible welfare-state and tax-based redistribution policies -- i.e. social democracy -- more easily than traditional Marxism, which requires a revolution by factory workers (and/or farmers).
On the disadvantage side, number-based class analysis tends to miss the increasingly important educational divide in American (and European) politics.
But on the advantage side, numbers are easy to communicate, especially in the age of social media. "Look at how little taxes the top bracket pays" makes a great viral graph. "Look at how the owners exploit the workers" does not.
Anyway I personally think both types of analysis have value, and I hope someone will come along and combine them into something more nuanced and complex than what we have now. But in the meantime, it's interesting to note the ways the two types of analysis diverge.
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