Americans seem to feel that middle class means having your own “home”, meaning a small plot of land with a house. The number of such homes, within a certain distance of workplaces, schools, and various urban amenities, is limited. There’s nothing any economic system can do about that. At some point, people have to accept smaller plots of land and/or stacking the dwellings (ie living in apartments).
Germany is not traditionally a property-owning nation. The proportion of renters is far higher. Does that mean that Germany has fewer middle class people than its neighbors? That doesn’t make sense to me.
I think this is a toxic view. It means that there is a limited supply of middle class status. People who already own property, have a strong financial incentive for NIMBYism. You also have a financial incentive to make property more scarce and thus more expensive. It incentivizes a fuck you, I got mine attitude. When your dwelling is not just a place to stay, but a source of status and identity, this is made all the much worse.
Maybe you’re thinking, we should just sell off all the property owned by corporations or the state, so that more individuals can get their middle class badge. Well, that’s what Margret Thatcher did. It’s exactly the kind of neoliberal thinking that got us the society we have today.
Middle class isn’t a thing, it’s a made-up bourgeois tool to give the working class an idea of what’s “enough” with no respect to actual labor output, nor is it a Social relation to the Means of Production.
By what definition is somebody who can’t afford property “upper middle class”?
Common definitions for the middle class range from the middle fifth of individuals on a nation’s income ladder, to everyone but the poorest and wealthiest 20%. (Wikipedia)
Americans seem to feel that middle class means having your own “home”, meaning a small plot of land with a house. The number of such homes, within a certain distance of workplaces, schools, and various urban amenities, is limited. There’s nothing any economic system can do about that. At some point, people have to accept smaller plots of land and/or stacking the dwellings (ie living in apartments).
Yes but apartments can be owned. I’m German and I also think middle class means the family either owns or is currently paying off a house/apartment
Germany is not traditionally a property-owning nation. The proportion of renters is far higher. Does that mean that Germany has fewer middle class people than its neighbors? That doesn’t make sense to me.
I think this is a toxic view. It means that there is a limited supply of middle class status. People who already own property, have a strong financial incentive for NIMBYism. You also have a financial incentive to make property more scarce and thus more expensive. It incentivizes a fuck you, I got mine attitude. When your dwelling is not just a place to stay, but a source of status and identity, this is made all the much worse.
Maybe you’re thinking, we should just sell off all the property owned by corporations or the state, so that more individuals can get their middle class badge. Well, that’s what Margret Thatcher did. It’s exactly the kind of neoliberal thinking that got us the society we have today.
-> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ownership_society
Middle class isn’t a thing, it’s a made-up bourgeois tool to give the working class an idea of what’s “enough” with no respect to actual labor output, nor is it a Social relation to the Means of Production.