ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is on the statistical pattern of class (re-)production. Unlike the colonial system and other hierarchically ranked structures, it argues that occupations are not the basis for vertical inequality, but nevertheless important outside the market sphere by historically influenced differences in security, status and prestige. As argued in the theoretical chapter, market values of occupations measured by income are better suited as criteria of relative advantage in capitalism. Income is more general than ownership of means of production and better suited to the functional division of labour of global capitalism that abstracts from the actual content of labour. In addition to income, educational level is taken as a secondary principle of vertical differentiation, measuring relative advantage for those outside the production process. Based on these class definitions, the remainder of the chapter tests two strands of European theories of class (re-)production for their ability to explain unemployment, government employment as well as high income.
