What are the real "classes" in America?

The ones who think they can. And the ones who think the government should.

I enjoy your scholarly work on the subject. I'm sure that you're excellent examples and definitions will catch on and totally revolutionize sociology, anthropology and economics.

Obviously, a steel worker takes ore and heat and produces steel. Obviously a real estate speculator merely buys property and then sells it when the price gets higher; obviously they produce nothing and are parasites who have found arbitrage in the real estate market.

But I find some of your expert thesis vague. Perhaps you could enlighten me.

A doctor or nurse, they, in fact, produce nothing. Their input is a patient and medical equipment and medicine. Their output is a patient. What have they produced other than paperwork?

A medical technician, they however do produce paperwork that assisted the doctor who doesn't seem to be a producer. So is a medical technician a parasite on a parasite?

What about a farmer? Most farmers obviously produce something. Yet, if I take a corn farmer their profit margins are increased by more than double because of government regulation. They receive direct payments from the government, grains such as quinoa are tariffed to such a high rate that while they cost less to produce and ship to the united states are actually more expensive than corn (compare the price of corn meal to quinoa some time). The corn farmer also gets additional help from government regulation of the ethanol market since they receive 54 cents a gallon subsidy AND a 51 cent a gallon tariff on sugar ethanol. Now the farmer produces something, yet more than half his profit is from government regulations that are favorable to his industry that is paid for by the taxpayer. Why is the farmer a parasite?

Now lets get back to the steel worker. While he produces something, he produces something that has no economic right to exist. In fact were it not for steel tariffs, the American steel industry would have completely collapsed. The steel company only exists because it is able to siphon off money from the taxpayer through tariffs and low interest government loans. Does this mean that the steel worker is a parasite because he gets his wages through favorable regulation and tariffs?

How about the truck driver? Outside of emissions, the truck driver produces nothing. All he does is gets product A from place X to place Y. He drives on federally or state or locally funded roads - often roads he doesn't pay for because his truck is registered somewhere else. In fact were it not for a demand for product A in place Y, he wouldn't have a job at all. Since he doesn't actually produce anything he must be a parasite, right?

Its a sad day when conservatives think that truck drivers and farmers and steel workers are parasites while paper pushers at insurance companies and stock brokers who do nothing more than move numbers around on a computer are producers.

Your Hegelian dialectic materialism defining producers and parasites appears to fail.

I live on the border of Oregon and Washington, in the city of Vancouver. All around we see tall Evergreen firs. Some that still exist from the days when there was an outpost here on the Columbia River, owned by the British as a fur trading company. It was known as Fort Vancouver, even long after our own military arrived,and renamed an area, Vancouver Barracks. There has been an American detachment here since those days. Although now, the buildings in the barracks area are being utilized by non military for housing and a restaurant. The 4th of July fireworks are the best in the west here and people come from all over to see the display from the riverfront, on each side of the Columbia. We who live here, feel this is Gods' Country. From the tallest of the snow capped mountains in the distance, to the thick forests that stretch to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The climate is moderate, with very little snow in the valley during winter, and summers are usually moderate. Although we have seen some very warm days during summers' where it reached the 100f mark in the past. We also hear of crime on our streets. But the ratio is far less I've read, than the city across the river, Portland, Oregon. At least, we don't hear gunshots at night, as we have heard living in one Portland area in the past. And Meth seems to be a contagious crime spreading to even our neighborhoods of modest looking houses,with children playing in the yards. It's always a surprise to learn that the young couples that make and sell this, always have children. This is considered to be a great place to raise a family. The air is clean, as is the water, and there are farmers' markets available during summer and fall. Vancouver used to be a farmers town. And farmers would bring their produce to sell here. It has had a small town feel and continues to do so. We know that the big city is across the river, but most of us never leave when we have everything here. We don't have a state tax, but we do have a sales tax. Many live here and travel to Portland to work. Since we retired before moving here, we haven't had to worry about driving across to Oregon to work. We seem to have it all here. We can drive to the beaches in little over an hour. Or we can drive to the mountains in about the same amount of time. Or we can stay right at home, and enjoy the serenity of our own back yards, and barbeques, and not worry about driving where there might be traffic. And we do know we can drive anywhere out of the city limits and enjoy the great scenery of waterfalls, along the Columbia River Gorge. Or to the density of a forest to take a bath in a hot spring. We can enjoy our choice of three casinos on Indian reservations, and we can pick up pebbles on many a beach. But as seniors, we prefer to be stay at homes, and relaxing where we are. And home is where the heart is, after all.

The classes are Laborers and Capitalists. Working Class and Executives.

Capitalism is a system designed to use labor to build capital. By definition, exploitation and degradation is built into it.

If profit is the motive, then being fair, just, charitable, humanitarian, compassionate, fall by the wayside.

The class division of the 95% to 5% is a real problem. Especially for that 5% when the 95% has had enough.

I don't agree with defining Progressives as parasites.

A closer analogy might be the medieval doctors that used parasites like leeches to drain the life blood of already weakened patients. These doctors were able to convince their unfortunate patients that it was in their own best interest to submit to something naturally abhorrent to human nature. This resembles the politicians convincing progressives that giving up freedom and prosperity is in their own best interest and that it will benefit the nation as a whole.

While the doctors bred leeches to use in their practice, progressive politicians institute programs that insure the cycle of poverty is maintained and keep the poor dependent on them. This sustains their voter base in an almost symbiotic parasitic relationship. It's not truly symbiotic as blood given to the poor by the politician is not his own, but that of more productive members of society. The doctors continued their destructive practice despite all scientific evidence to the contrary just as progressives today ignore the lessons history and the staggering toll their philosophy has taken on the human race and its societies.

Rather than admit the very practice is harmful in and of its self, they believe it was just not implemented correctly, that they are smarter than those of the past and they will make it work. Even this sad explanation of their motives may be too generous, but the alternative motives are too sickening to contemplate.

@ culture vulture "Even one of the brightest philosophers on the right, Bill O'Reilly"

I have to admit that was funny.

I would like to see a philosophical debate between one of the brightest philosophers on the left, Rosie O'Donnell and O'Reilly. That would be a train wreck of epic proportions.

I posted a similar response earlier to a very similar question but the freedom of speech loving left apparently believe the first amendment only applies to opinions that mirror their own.

Producers and parasites?

Sure like Paris Hilton and all those other celebrities produce anything yet are rich. Please

There are the disenfranchised(<$10K), the poor ($10K-$29K), the working class($30K-$59K), the middle class($60K-$149K), the upper middle class($150K-$999K), the upper class ($1M-$999M), and the billionaires (Gates, Buffett, etc, etc).

I understand your position, first read Rand in middle school, back when it was known as junior high.

I see it now as the haters and the hatees and everyone belongs to both. Society as we know it is dissolving and the classes will dissolve as well. There won't be many survivors in the end. Producers have a better shot at surviving, but most won't.

Parasite. I tried to get a job. I couldn't get one so I gave up and went to college instead. I don't want to be a parasite, but in the short term I can't fix it.

I would say I am a producer since I have have a job and believe that it is up to me to either get a better job or live within the pay that I get.

OMG. You're a white male who lives in the suburbs, aren't you?

There is no class war? Even one of the brightest philosophers on the right, Bill O'Reilly, agrees that there is a class problem in this country. I mean, since he endorses it, shouldn't you at least consider it?

LOOK: Even FOX NEWS says so!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,2517,00.html

There are no classes just varying degrees of the same thing. Poor is just as degree of wealth which is little. Race is a variation of pigmentation