Henry (my Scottish housemate) used a phrase that I have only heard uttered by people from the UK and Ireland. He said something about the “working class.” I mentioned that in the US, we don’t use that phrase and his response was, “What do you call them?” My thought was, who is them? It’s a really telling thing I think… Americans really don’t tend to think in those types of Marxist “classes,” we do talk in real vague terms like poor, rich, and middle class, but not “working.”
After all, everyone “works” in the US, even Bill Gates works… We’ve never had an aristocracy. For me, using the term “working class” is a little repulsive. It assumes that there is an entire group of people that are only good for a certain type of job. As the economy continues to change, there will be fewer and fewer blue collar jobs, the Brits will have to come up with a better description…