{"id":29422,"date":"2018-01-05T11:38:13","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T16:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=29422"},"modified":"2018-01-05T11:38:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T16:38:13","slug":"how-destructive-is-the-middle-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=29422","title":{"rendered":"How destructive is the middle class?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How destructive is the middle class? <\/a><\/h3>\n
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Firstly, I\u2019ve no wish to define people by accidents of birth and then condemn them for the effects of those accidents \u2013 by accent, dress, or other filial habits. Whichever class we\u2019ve been born into remains as our original soil. Parenthood, love, loyalty and some behavioural codes, grow from that sacred ground. There\u2019s nothing we can do about our entry into the world, or our remaining gratitude for it. However, as adults (if we accept that rite of passage) we must look about at the wider world \u2013 our connections to and our effects within it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like you to consider that the current middle class is a defended enclosure by those whose income is largely composed of rent. Perhaps as powerful as land enclosure, I ask you to contemplate a modern enclosure \u2013 status property. I leave aside the historical middle class \u2013 the yeoman, guildsman, bourgeoisie\u2026 I think they may have passed away.<\/p>\n

The negative effects of land enclosure are copiously documented by well-known economic philosophers, dating back at least as far as the Reformation (Thomas More). The negative effects of what I\u2019ve chosen to call status enclosure, as far as I can tell, are not documented at all. I speculate that status enclosure may be an even greater drain on a community than land enclosure. At any rate they\u2019ve a similar weight in the scales (and scales of injustice).<\/p>\n

I propose that the gathering of rent for status is the central process by which we become middle class.<\/p>\n

Status enclosure is the means to a monopoly of services. Lawyer, dentist, GP, architect and so on have gained right of enclosure to impose a large rent for their very existence \u2013 not for what their labour may provide.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How destructive is the middle class? Firstly, I\u2019ve no wish to define people by accidents of birth and then condemn them for the effects of those accidents \u2013 by accent, dress, or other filial habits. Whichever class we\u2019ve been born into remains as our original soil. Parenthood, love, loyalty and some behavioural codes, grow from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[1712,7042,17777,2137,17778],"class_list":["post-29422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-destruction","tag-feasta","tag-foundation-for-the-economics-of-sustainability","tag-middle-class","tag-patrick-noble"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29423,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29422\/revisions\/29423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}