The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret

The Dow is high, unemployment is low, so what could be wrong? In this pungent critique of class and economics in the United States--part economic theory, part political lecture and part reportage of working-class life--Zweig offers an insightful, radical analysis that will make many readers rethink commonly held but unexamined beliefs. Arguing that class is less about annual income than ""about the power that some people have over the lives of others, and the powerlessness most people experience as a result,"" Zweig reassesses class in terms of who has power in the workplace and concludes that the majority of America's employed are working class. Because the U.S.'s economic structure, job organization and social arrangements all denigrate blue-collar mannerisms, identity and culture, most people (even those with very low incomes) are encouraged to view themselves as middle class. Yet those among the true middle-class in income and workplace power are only 36% of the work force--less than half of the working class. According to Zweig, the dream of a classless (or mostly middle-class) America has simply become a myth that's supported ""when we focus on the one who makes it and not the many who do not."" Zweig supports his arguments with statistics, facts and personal stories and argues with a forcefulness and conviction backed up by a deeply moral sense of the dignity that is due to each person in their work and workplace. (June)