<<And what would a class consciousness and war between the classes do to improve on that?>>
It would mean the election of legislators who put a higher priority on raising the minimum wage than they do on bringing "democracy" to Iraq. Who are more concerned with early child development in working class families than they are with spending billions on Israeli security. Who are more concerned with issues like debt relief than with issues of protecting lenders' rights. Etc.
<<Class consciousness is gauche for the rich to display . . . >>
Of course, which is why they work so hard to dispel the ideas that class and the class war exist in America.
<< . . . and foolish for the poor to display >>
Really? Foolish for the poor to look for legislators more concerned with the minimum wage than with "democracy" for the Iraqis?
and irrelivant for the most of us who are neither.
<<Class consciousness is a very bad idea for anyone, the rich would be better off being constructive , and many are . . . >>
Well, the fact is, the rich are anything but foolish, they know immediately who is on their side and who is not, and they dispense their campaign funding accordingly. There is nothing at all foolish about it.
<< the poor are better off lifting themselves as often they do.>>
And the first step for many of them in lifting themselves is to get affordable day care, raise the minimum wage and get some health insurance. Things "their" government has consistently ignored, while pursuing such worthwhile and multi-billion dollar efforts as bringing "democracy" to Iraq, ensuring the security of Israel and trying to drum up support for a new war against Iran. A class-conscious working class will elect representatives with THEIR interests at heart, much to their immediate benefit. Which of course is the very reason that the rich and the special interests expend so much energy in denying the very existence of the class war.
<<Immagrants arrive with no real advantages that Americans of every "class" can't have but someone that learned to leap with a pack on will leap high indeed when the pack is lightened. >>
You're missing the point that the immigrant already made his leap when he crossed the border. Proving that he's got the right stuff and probably proving it again once he settles in.
<<Would an American be wise to pretend that the government wouldn't feed him?>>
No, I think he'd be wise to vote for somebody who says - - AND MEANS IT - - that he or she will fight for the right to universal health care, will fight for higher minimum wage NOW, will fight for early child development NOW (when your kids are one and two, not when they're twelve or fifteen) and will provide decent housing now. That is what I'D vote for if I were poor and class-conscious.
<<By the way , how many classes are there? >>
I can divide it up into the upper class (that doesn't need to work for a living, can live quite well off their investments, what would have been called the rentier class in France,) the bourgeoisie or middle class, which earns a decent living through business or the liberal professions like law or medicine, architecture or engineering, academia etc., can take regular vacations, educate their children, have adequate or superior medical and dental care and good housing and transportation. Then there is the proletariat, the agricultural, industrial or commercial working class ("workers and peasants") who can range from the lowest of the low, "stoop labour," up to highly-paid blue-collar workers, technicians, teachers, etc. who are blending into the lower ranges of the bourgeoisie. There is also the lumpenproletariat, which would consist of the chronically unemployed and the criminal and petty-criminal underworld, the so-called "useless eaters."
That's my own personal map of the class war. I'm sure there are other versions, typically the middle class being subdivided into "upper" and "lower" bourgeoisie, or the so-called "working class" taking in all of the workers, the lumpenproles and the criminal underworld.
A more simplistic division is into borrowers and lenders. Borrowers want low interest rates, easy debt relief and whether they realize it or not will benefit more from inflation than the lenders will. Lenders want tight money (high interest rates,) no debt relief ever and zero inflation - - if they lend 2008 dollars, they want to be repaid in 2008 dollars, not in the lower-value, inflated, newly-printed-on-demand 2010 dollars, if the 2010 dollars have less purchasing power than the 2008 dollars did.
<<Where is the convention for mine , my invitation got lost.>>
I'd figure you for working class. Skilled worker. Just a guess of course.
