In socialist analysis, there are really only two classes: the working class and the capitalist class. The difference is that the capitalist receive passive income from their legal ownership of the means of production and while they may choose to do some sort of work, they are not dependent on their pay for survival.

The idea of the “middle class” is a relatively recent invention which in this analysis serves to divide the workers by giving some of them the impression that they are higher status than others while still leaving them subordinate to the capitalists.