Letter to the editor: Anyone who works hard, earns a paycheck is “working class”
· The Washington TimesOPINION:
“The working class.” It’s a term that “AOC” and Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent, use almost daily, despite never having worked a day in manufacturing.
It’s also a term used by the political left to advance an agenda that pits one group of Americans against another. Hitler used it to feed the flames of hatred against the Jews.
It’s a term perpetuated by those who haven’t figured out there’s not a finite amount of money in our economy. That means no one is poor because someone else is rich.
In a March 24, 2025 article, the Center for American Progress says “the working class” refers to “workers without a four-year college degree — making up almost two-thirds of the workforce and … more racially and ethnically diverse than the college-educated workforce.”
There is no good reason for the Center for American Progress or anyone else to invent imaginary guidelines; it serves no value.
My parents and grandparents are the hardest-working people I ever knew and all have four-year degrees, my grandmother with a master’s from Columbia University. All performed back-breaking labor on a small Iowa farm — the very sort of work that AOC and Mr. Sanders wouldn’t last five minutes doing.
So I have a real problem defining “working class” by education level.
I believe that anyone who works hard at their job to earn a paycheck and pays taxes is a member of the working class — with the exception of lawyers and stockbrokers, of course.
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There’s enough division in our country without inventing separate classes.
BEN FURLEIGH
Georgetown, Kentucky