OPINION:
“The working class.” It is a term that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), New York Democrat, and Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, use almost daily, despite never having worked a day in manufacturing.
It is also a term used by the political left to advance an agenda that pits one group of Americans against another. Adolf Hitler used it to feed the flames of hatred against Jews.
It is a term perpetuated by those who have not figured out that our economy does not have a finite amount of money. 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.”
Neither the Center for American Progress nor anyone else has a good reason to invent imaginary guidelines; they serve no purpose.
My parents and grandparents are the hardest-working people I have ever known, and all have four-year degrees — including my grandmother, who earned a master’s from Columbia University. All performed backbreaking 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.
Our country has enough division without the invention of separate classes.
BEN FURLEIGH
Georgetown, Kentucky
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