Power can be visible, as when a supervisor has authority over a workforce. Invisible power is transmitted in the culture, in the education system, and in the occasional visible application of power to discipline people who think or act in ways that challenge the rules. To understand how class operates in society, we need to look at the ways visible power relations, usually at work, are reinforced by invisible power in the larger society. Do the same for television programming. Looking at class in terms of power lets us see the relationships that operate in society and helps us understand how we fit into those relationships.
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.