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Although some people who can reasonably be considered workers draw salaries, generally the working class works for wages. So defined, they consititute about 80% of the workforce in the United States. Also in the United States, following a slight rise in real wages during the dot com boom of the late 1990s, their income has slipped slightly during the first years of the 21st century. [1]
The proletariat are further subdivided by Marxists into the ordinary proletariat and the lumpenproletariat (rag-proletariat), those who are extremely poor and cannot find legal work on a regular basis. These may be prostitutes, beggars, or homeless people.
Some of the more wealthy members of society have blamed many of the problems of working class people on excessive consumption of alcohol, laziness, failure to save money, and more recently satellite television, spectator sports and drugs. In reference to this, Oscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde ( October 16, 1854— November 30, 1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and short story writer. One of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day, h said "Work is the curse of the drinking classes". This does not necessarily mean that the working class is morally inferior to the wealthier classes. First, it isn't clear whether the working class are really any less hardworking than the wealthier classes, as such a trait is difficult to measure. Indeed, regardless of whether they enjoy it or not, working class people arguably do the most difficult labor, which is the very reason they are called "working class" in the first place. Furthermore, if the working class does show more dysfunctional behavior, this could be the result of the sparse opportunities and constant hardships that they have faced. Such behavior could be a result of socioeconomic conditions as much as those conditions could be a result of dysfunctional behavior; the cause-effect relationship is not well established.
While some view religionReligion sometimes used interchangeably with faith, is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the practices and institutions associated with such belief. Borobudur, a Buddhist stupa built between 750 and 850 Adriaen as the key to overcoming these problems, Karl Marx spoke of religion as "...the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people" (A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, 1844). He argued that it gives "false hope" and encourages passivity among the working class. As a consequence, most (but not all) Marxists oppose organized religion.