Embourgeoisement

As a new middle class (or white‐collar workers) of more skilled and better educated workers began to expand in the mid‐twentieth century, the boundaries between the working class, or proletariat, and this new middle class grew more complex. This new middle class was not like the old middle class of independent professionals, or petty bourgeoisie, and mostly were employed in large bureaucracies where in many ways they were like higher skilled factory workers. At the same time, with new production technologies, more skills and education were required of manual laborers, or the proletariat. Also, with rising wages for working‐class jobs relative to white‐collar jobs from the end of World War II until the 1970s, working‐class standards of living were becoming like those of the middle class, or white‐collar workers. Thus, the concept of embourgeoisement of the working class became a widely discussed issue. In other words, in terms of consumption and lifestyle, the working class was becoming more like the middle class.