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Uh, do you think that the labor class is defined by utter poverty or something? The labor class is defined by having to work for their livelihood, which most of
by mplanchard 22d ago
Uh, do you think that the labor class is defined by utter poverty or something? The labor class is defined by having to work for their livelihood, which most of us still do, even if we have a mortgage or a nice 401(k) or whatever.
- tekla 22d agoI'm going to guess that you want this to include SV/SF people as part of the labor class. This is a joke to the labor class and they are making fun of you
- globalnode 22d agodefine livelihood, it involves a standard and cost of living that is different for different people
- hackable_sand 22d agoYou are most definitely not getting a seat at the campfire.
- incr_me 22d agoMy parent did not say "labor class" (a mishmash of words), they said proletariat, which is an abstraction that has a real history. Most of us here are petty bourgeois, labor aristocrats, or settlers. A house or a 401(k) are literally capital. So, the proletariat is defined by utter poverty more than being wage laborers, yes. That's my point. Those conditions of utter poverty define the majority of the world's population, but exceedingly few in the imperialist sphere.
- mplanchard 21d agoI mean, the wikipedia on proletariat disagrees with your definition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proletariat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proletariat The proletariat’s primary economic value is their labor. They do not own the means of production. Having capital is not the same as being able to live entirely off your capital and the hired labor of others. In Marxist terms, we are possibly the petite bourgeoisie, although I personally always viewed that as being only the small-business-owning or freelance-style non-capital class: i.e. people who don’t live off their money/property exclusively, but who own a business that they themselves must work to maintain. People who “are their own boss” but who still have to work, essentially. A key point is that the petite bourgeoisie always wants to act like and identify with the capital class, despite not belonging to it. In an era of continuously deepening equality, the petite bourgeoisie would likely be better off identifying more with the proletariat, since the capital class is not itching to let them in.
- incr_me 21d agoMarxism is good. Here: https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/p/r.htm https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/p/r.htm > "The proletariat is that class in society which lives entirely from the sale of its labour power and does not draw profit from any kind of capital; whose weal and woe, whose life and death, whose sole existence depends on the demand for labour...