Working Class Hero

In a little toss-aside manifesto, Papa Karl mentioned that, at some point, the lower middle class (and also some bourgoise idealogues) would sink into the proletariat. I woke up the other day and realized, "By George, I'm in the working class!"

Transportation: One (1) van with 120K miles on it. My commute to work is not driving, not on metro, not carpooling, but the freaking Metrobus (only $1.25!) Well, that's on the way to work. To get home, I ride the free Maryland shuttle to New Hampshire and then walk a mile on a busy thoroughfare. How do I get to downtown DC? Uh, Metrobus to campus, free Maryland shuttle to the metro, metro downtown. Another sign? I don't work downtown. The only thing that would make it more working class would be to live in the city while working in the 'burbs.

Location: Solidly Hispanic working class. Our neighbors are police offers and small businessmen, generally handymen and that sort. Seems like a lot of families, but in an older neighborhood. Oh, and I rent.

Music: A lot of the Levellers. And I really like the new Green Day stuff (what is wrong with me? I also love the new Linkin Park song.)

Income: As I talk with other people in the region, their perception is that the middle class stretches up to between 150-200K for income. Now, that's maybe because everyone thinks they are middle class. But, I think that solidly puts me in the working class.

Now, my profession certainly isn't working class. (Can we make a subset of working class that's called "thinking as working"? Does that count?). But still, four out of five indicators? Good enough, right? And now that I'm working class, I need to start thinking working class, whatever that means. It means thinking about football and baseball all day? Well, never mind, I'm already there...