The Middle Class Delusion

In the wonderful world of Capitalism there is one economic sub-culture that has emerged called the Middle Class.  This culture is however a delusion in my opinion, an excellent marketing ploy.  In my eyes there are two classes of people, Working Class and Upper Class.

I justify this belief on one simple ground: if you cannot afford to live for the rest of your life without ever working again - in other words if you need to work to live then you are working class.  If you could choose not to work for the rest of your life and support yourself on your own money without any help from the state then you are upper class.

I believe that in Capitalism as a whole the above holds true as the entire economic model requires a privileged few and a large working populous.  I believe that in modern society as we grow in terms of technology and in terms of our own capabilities we have become more and more conscious of the our standing in society and most imperatively we want to move up.  It is a natural desire to further yourself.  However if too many were to rise into the upper class then capitalism as it stands would not function, simply put, capitalism needs people to stay poor in order to exist.

Here enters the Middle Class Delusion, the excellent marketing ploy that spans centuries, that convinced the working class to stay working class.  Ask many people who are identified or self-identify as Middle Class and you will see a large quantity would like to remain that way.  Convinced that the path of either direction holds no real gain they choose to live 'a comfortable life' with their luxuries and their salaries that in comparison to those below seem to be very good.

At present I do not think there is any economic model that can provide equality and eliminate exploitation.  I just wish that those who think they are not working class would realise the simple truth:

If you have to work to live, you are working class.

You can perhaps divide the working class into sections, lower working class, and middle working class, but the delusion that the Middle Class perpetuates of distance between themselves and the people they label as beneath them is laughable at best.