In France during medieval times. a separate group emerged that were not quite peasants, but at the same time were not exactly nobility, They were originally called the bourgeoisie This new group was right in the middle of the two classes, During the medieval time period, according to Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, the bourgeoisie were normally comprised of “merchants, tradespeople, artisans, and later bankers and entrepreneurs.” Eventually, with the rise of the towns as an important center for activity, the bourgeoisie became important as economic and social classes. Following the end of the Middle Ages, the bourgeoisie’s influence became larger, as they normally supported the new ruling monarchs.
They usually found themselves at the forefront of science, technology, and social change. However, by the 17th century, they found themselves supporting the principles of natural rights and constitutionally run governments, Before the ZOth century, this class was easy to spot. The lines between the lower class, the bourgeoisie, and the nobility, or upper class, were clearly drawn. However, starting in the 20th century and continuing on to today, the lines drawn between the classes are harder to see and define. This is especially true of the middle class, no longer called the bourgeoisie. because the phrase has a broad. sweeping meaning. The Reader‘s Digest Oxford Complete Wordfinder tries to define this phrase, but falls short of its true definition.
According to Reader’s Digest, the term “middle class” is, “The class of society between the upper and lower, including professionals and business workers”. This definition is vague. To understand the meaning to its fullest, one must go to the definition of the upper and lower classes. These definitions are Just as unclear as the definition of the middle class. It basically says that the upper class is, “the highest class of society” (1694). The same type of blurry definition is prowded for the lower class. The law dictionaries that were consulted did not even contain an entry for the phrase. Therefore, even though the phrase is sometimes used in court to define someone’s socioeconomic standing, it is not even given consideration by the court system and their definitions. So, the dictionaries do not provide an adequate definition of the word. However. the dictionary is not alone in its failure.
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Both the government and the legal system use the term middle class, but nether recognize it officially and provide a concrete definition, The United States Census Bureau, when asked what their definition of middle class is, respond on their website with, “The United States Census Bureau does not have an official definition of ‘middle class.‘ We do, however, derive several measures related to the distribution of income and income inequality.” The Census Bureau does not have a clear-cut definition of middle class but that’s because the Census Burau does not use the term. Moreover, many of our elected officials also use the term regularly, For example, in former president Clinton’s state of the union address, as transcriped on CNN’s website, given in January 1998, he states. “Last year. together we enacted targeted tax cuts so that the typical middle-class family will now have the lowest tax rates in 20 years” Another example of the usage of the word in our government can be seen in the speech of a former New York Congressman, Martin Olav Sab: “For much of this century, the United States has had a strong middle class.
As our economy grew and companies prospered. so did middle class families. These cases offer good examples of common use. but they do little to define the exact meaning of the phrase, There is, however, one person who uses the idea and defines it well, Karl Marx. Marx, the developer of what would become the Communist movement, wrote the Communist Manifesto. It is Within the covers of this book that Marx defines his revolutionary ideas about the working class, or the proletariat. HIS idea, according to the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, is that the oppression of the bourgeoisie would eventually falter, allowing the proletariat to rise above the their oppressors to rule with everyone being equal.
He defines the bourgeoisie. or middle class, as the capitalist business owners, and the proletariat as the working class, Marx makes his distinction between the white»collar middle class, and the blLiercollar working class. Marx’s definition prowdes one of the best distinctions between the middle class and the working class. This, however. may be one of the problems with today’s definition of the term “middle class.” As the dictionary points out, the middle class is between the upper and the lower classes. However, Marx’s definition stipulates that the upper class was the bourgeoiSIe. but his definition was forgetting the rich, non-working landowners. In the modern definition, the term middle class means anyone between the poverty level and the ultra rich business owners.
Therefore, as the Census Bureau stated the term middle class really refers to a range of incomes that is in fact undefined in today’s society. Anotherway to classify who belongs to the middle class group is to classify by the types of jobs, as many people do The Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia does this exact thing by saying that the middle class is composed of “professionals, whitercollar workers, farmers, and the like, all far removed from the capitalist class of Marxist theory.”
However, this, like most of the definitions, is flawed because the phrase white-collar and farmers contradict themselves. If you are a white-collar worker, meaning you do not engage in manual labor. then farmers cannot be placed in that group. That is the reason that this line of definitions is flawed. Who is to say what jobs belong in the group of middle class? Furthermore. what about retired CEOs, are they middle class because they are retired and not working? Many sources attempt to give a definition of the phrase. “middle class.” However. many of those definitions fall short of what the phrase means in modern times.
The term can be defined by a person‘s job, but that can be debated by asking how do you know what jobs are on the “middle class” list, Today, the term can mean anything from a garbage man or factory worker, to a small business owner or an engineer. The modem definition is extremely broad and based loosely on how much income that person makes. However. this distinction based on income is not yet written on paper. If we are to continue using this term. we need to set clown a tangible, working definition of not only “middle class”, but also “upper class” and “lower class.”
