Anatomy of “Affluent Workers”

Richard Nixon, Edmund Muskie, George Wallace, Harold Wilson, the New Left, the Old Left, Michel Rocard, Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, Rudi Dutschke—pretty much everybody dreams about the working class these days, though they dream different dreams. This discord in some ways parallels the continuing battle among writers of various kinds as to the exact composition, aspirations, and political views of the working class. That higher real wages, more consumer goods, more leisure, better housing, greater job complexity, and mass culture have changed the living conditions of the working class in industrialized countries is beyond dispute. That the working-class movement has lost some of its revolutionary and even reformist zeal is also obvious. What remains contentious are propositions that predict the political orientation of workers in the future: have they been absorbed into the system for good or are conditions preparing for a new era of conflict and change?

Arguments about ...