"Class as a label is outmoded, often derogatory, and usually Socialist, claptrap."

Spoken like a true member of the modern bourgeois society.

I think if Marx were alive today he'd be rethinking his definitions of the bourgeoisie and proletariat. You can still basically divide it along the lines of the owners and makers, but with the decline of manufacturing and the rise of service industries these lines need to be redrawn.

I've been giving some though about this and here's my take so far:

Bourgeois class: All owners of business with employees, middle managers upwards, land-owning (rather than tennant) farmers (these days).

Proletariat: Sole traders, manufacturing workers etc, service industry employees and tennant farmers.

Of course there is now a super-rich class that trancend these and are included in the ruling classes.

Obviously there is more to it than this, but my tea's ready and I'm famished.