ABSTRACT
The middle class has not always existed. The essence of middle-class life is to do nonmanual labor in what are called white-collar jobs. Persons in white-collar jobs usually sit at desks, nearly always stay physically clean while they work, often supervise others, sometimes engage in entrepreneurial activity, and frequently have high incomes. More polemically, they do not “bend, lift, scrub, shovel, haul, or engage in other potentially damaging exertions for a living.” 1 They join fitness clubs instead. But the rise of a class of people who need physical activity as a respite from work is new in history.
