Chapter one gives a detailed account of the three classes that make up U.S. society. Each class is distinct from the others but related to them. People in each class have many differences among themselves, yet they share a place in the social power grid that gives them a particular class position. The main power capitalists have is over the people who work for them. Based on this, and the money the business brings to the capitalist, power at work extends into power in the broader society.
Capitalists control the workforce indirectly, through at least one layer of middle management.
The top executives and directors of companies employing more than twenty people are the capitalist class in the United States, about two million people, or about two percent of the private-sector labor force. There is a lot of variation in power among capitalists. A company employing one hundred people will be important in a small town, less so in a big city. So power depends on the social context in which the business operates, not just the business itself. The part of the capitalist class with power on a national scale is a relatively small percent of all capitalists, around two hundred thousand people.