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Monday, April 04, 2005

Class. posted by Richard Seymour

Since this has been a topic of some interest in the comments boxes of late, I thought I'd lay some stats on you and see if we can't work something out.

Just reading Jeremy Seabrook's slender volume for the 'New Internationalist', The No Nonsense Guide to Class, Caste & Hierarchies, I come across the following:

According to the United Nations Human Development Report, the world's richest 20 per cent receive 86 per cent of the world's gross product; the middle 60 per cent 13 per cent, while the poorest 20 per cent receive one per cent. The ratio between the top and bottom fifth of humanity is 74 to 1. In 1960 it was 30 to 1.


This could probably be refined even further, so that one could find the top 5% receiving the lion's share of that 86% etc. There is a global class of the super rich. Among the most wealthy are Bill Gates ($58.7 bn), Warren Buffet ($32.3 bn) and Jim Walton of Wal Mart ($18.8bn). In 1998, the assets of the world's 200 richest individuals stood at £1 trillion. So what, you may ask? Perhaps, like Mary Kenny , the only thing that bothers you about the super rich is their snooty high-falutin attitude.

Well, think about self-interest, damn you! Datamonitor UK estimates that the number of millionaires is growing by 17% a year at the moment, a stupendous rate of growth. In 2001, there were 74,000 millionaires. To compare, between 1979 and 1999, the wealth of the poorest 10% dropped by 9 per cent; for the richest 10% it rose by 70%. Now, currently the average UK income is £408 a week after tax, but over 60% of Britons live below that average. So, while 60% of people live below £21,000 a year, there are a tiny cluster of people hoovering up millions.

But this is inequality, so what is its relation to class? As Jeremy Seabrook points out, inequality is an abstraction. Relations between individuals are unequal, and the only way to group people using such measures are deciles or percentiles of some variety. Class is about the relations of production; one belongs to a class if one wants to advance some reform or change in the society. That money that lines the pockets of the super-rich didn't come from nowhere, and it certainly is unlikely to be as a result of the unique effort and genius of those who have accrued such wealth to themselves. Chances are, if you are among the majority, your work helped create that wealth. If you are among those whose working hours has risen sharply even though you wish it were the contrary, you have probably helped generate super-profits for your lazy-assed fucking bosses.

My suggestion is you get yourself unionised if you aren't already and try to claw some of that back. Take a hint from Woody Allen: "When I left school, I went to work at my father's store. And I unionised the workers. And we struck, and drove him out of business."

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