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I'd guess the commenter means, that from a Marxist perspective, most workers are not 'capitalists,' i.e., they don't make their living from owning capital. Thes
by ljp_206 6y ago
I'd guess the commenter means, that from a Marxist perspective, most workers are not 'capitalists,' i.e., they don't make their living from owning capital. These 'non-capitalist' workers get wages primarily from capitalists. Perhaps the author is moderately successful and does live off of investments now. That could technically make him a 'capitalist' - again, from a certain perspective.
I'll readily admit this is mostly a semantic difference, but to me it serves as a good reminder that, for example, calling even the most ardent free market supporter minimum wage WalMart worker a 'capitalist' is about as sick of a joke as pretending that the majority of jobs offers workers a chance of building 'capital' in the first place - as the author points out.
- darawk 6y agoPatrick runs his own software business afaik, so I think he definitely qualifies as a capitalist in terms of his economic role in society. However, I assume by 'capitalist' he meant more the suite of economic beliefs he subscribes to than his own personal role in the economy.
- kirubakaran 6y ago> Patrick runs his own software business afaik He used to. Now he works at Stripe.
- wyclif 6y agoA bit of a shame that the Miniconf talk he linked to was taken down on this old post.
- sjg007 6y agoAgree and in fact employee ownership gets lumped in with socialism as do unions. An equity option at least allows you to be paid in virtual capital that may or may not materialize. Direct stock grants or RSUs at least give you the option to be a capitalist. Otherwise we all have our retirements in 401ks makes us de-facto capitalists too. We're supposed to eventually live off of those investments.
- sokoloff 6y agoEvery online dictionary SERP on the first page lists something of the form “(noun)-a person favoring capitalism”, which is pretty clearly the use Patrick implied from context. About half of them list that first and half second to the usage you describe above.