So, to start, a lot of HS students with aspirations of going to a university of some sort have to spend a decent amount of their last year or 2 trying to court different colleges for scholarships (most of which are colleges you’ve never heard of offering like $400 off or something) and free ride scholarships are (and this is admittedly anecdotal) unheard of in my area (suburb near major city). Should more socialist minded youth without the means to go to college find jobs? I don’t say this out of an anti-education perspective or some sort of belief that colleges are too liberal of institutions or anything, if it was free for families to send their children to school, I’d be all for it. What do yall think? And feel free to give me book suggestions or quotes from Leftists if you have any that may apply to this, specifically on the topic of the US where college costs more annually on average than any other nation.
The vast majority of people who are in higher education and students are working class. The idea that they aren’t isn’t a Marxist view of classes.
Yes. But there is a clear difference in the imperial core from one who makes the median wage or less and an aristocrat who can insulate themselves from the class struggle.
That is true, but you need to remember that a lot of people who have a college degree don’t actually have labor aristocracy level wages.
Yes that’s true, higher education is no longer a guarantee of wealth. I mean, the experience of someone with a college degree is going to be very different from say, a factory labourer.
Even if they are labor aristocracy, which the good majority aren’t, that doesn’t make them not working class. Working class refers to your position in relation to the means of production
Yes, that’s right. Perhaps I should’ve phrased my initial statement differently. From my observation, the majority of people in socialist organizations are generally students, white collar workers, people with higher educations/professionals, etc. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with this, but in my opinion and experience, this does hinder their ability to connect with lower paid working people and the greater masses in general, and in the greater international world this makes western countries’ movements quite different from the class character of those where socialist revolutions have historically taken place.
That’s a problem sure, but that doesn’t make them not working class. A white collar worker has the same connection to the means of production as a blue collar does. The revolutionary potential and place within society. What I am saying boils down to two main critiques.
First off, it is important that we are clear in the differentiation of class, otherwise we risk diluting how class analysis actually underpins the way we analyze and view everything we ever see. I understand the idea that the class character is different, but the class relation is not.
Secondly, even if this is true, this is not a reason to not seek education. Without education, we would not have Marxist theory, nay, any writing at all. To understand the world around you, you must become educated on it in every way possible.