Is the neoclassical utility function just limited to maximizing quantifiable wealth, i.e., money or income? Isn’t it a perfectly good neoclassical utility maximizing choice to go to college because one considers knowledge for knowledge’s sake an end in itself–ditto for going to college to hang out, get drunk, and get laid? (People have defined “utility maximization” as “satisfying a subjective preference” to me both to defend and attack neoclassical economics, BTW. On the upside: it sanctions personal freedom, and promotes production based on what real people really want. On the downside: its a tautology that claims consumer decisions are rational because they “maximize” something called “utility” then instead of defining “utility,” goes on to claim that said “utility” has been maximized in consumer decisions.)

Long aside: I’ve generally encountered Smith, Ricardo, and Marx referred to as classical economists. The two (possibly wrong) things I know about this are:

they all had labor theories of value–differing labor theories of labor, but still labor theories of labor;

they all were concerned with the relation between price and value.

 The one (possibly wrong) thing I know about neoclassical economics is:

• it drops both value and the labor theories of value in favor of market price theories.

Maybe that just adds to the confusion, or you already know its wrong, in which case I apologize, but I hope its correct and possibly helpful–although how it might be so I couldn’t say. Argh. Sorry. End of long aside.

If I understand you, your interest in the term "class" is as a prospective teacher of English language and literature to college students who thinks his chosen career will confer benefits both intellectual and economic on your students, but have found in your studies that the term in question has been used in a variety of way that impinge upon your asprirations. I think you’re correct to challenge those approaches to the term that are hostile or blind to its other possible uses. In defense of my concentration on the term in a particular economic sense–one that I will try to make explicit in the future–is that one of my concerns is with the economic harm that people suffer in this society. I’m afraid of falling because I have fallen, and I’ve seen my friends and loved ones fall. I’ve also felt in myself and seen in others the pain that the ambiguous use of the term "middle class" can cause when someone encounters economic difficulties.

I’m pushing the limit on goofing off today, so I’ll have to end there.