what a total load of shit. I have no interest in being included in any of those categories, and I'm sure there's plenty of your millions and billions who don't either.Funk N. Furter wrote:There are the following groups of people in the worldForge. wrote:when did people start being "workers"?Funk N. Furter wrote: The workers.
to me that's as bad as "consumers" or even "useless eaters"
Capitalists - they own big companies
Middle class - they own small businesses, or they are professionals such as a lawyer or doctor. I would not include junior doctors or most teachers.
Workers - people who are employed, or who want to be.
Peasants - small farmers in counties that are not fully modernised. They are largely subsistence farmers, though some are comparatively wealthy.
This is how Marx defined classes and these definitions are still used, including by serious commentators allied to the capitalist class and sociologists.
In fact that language is for people who see themselves in the upper part of that and want to rule over other people so they label them as workers or peasants to make themselves feel better about exploiting them. It implies that it's some kind of natural order to things that everyone should happily fit into. Like Huxley's Alphas, betas, Deltas and Gammas - notice how there's also 4 groups there? That's no co-incidence.
The only thing I agree with about the "150 years" bit is that terminology belongs 150 years ago, not in 2013
Nobody talks like that any more unless they spend all their time reading 150 year old marxist bollocks. No offense personally.
I think 99% and 1% are the only categories we need here and now: Normal people, and the parasitic predators who live off of them.