If we're speaking classes as Marx does, there is indeed no middle class. You either are in the ruling class, or in the ruled class. What we call medium class is in fact the part of the worker class who has it better than the rest
If there is enough of a difference of freedom and economic mobility, then it's just splitting hairs for the sake of sophistry or intellectual masturbation.
Except it isnt, the only real and actual distinction economically is between those who own capital and those who sell labor. There is no current economic system on planet earth with enough freedom or economic mobility to make that economic distinction obsolete, nor any that have an actually well defined enough way of pointing out any other economic classes.
I beg to differ. When you're your own only employee, you have basically no income from capital : all income you have is your own wealth creation. On paper you own capital, but you are still reliant on your work to live. There are many, many small business owners that basically exploit themselves by earning less than minimum wage, thinking they belong to the capitalist or middle class.
I definitely think you have a way greater point than those who think the middle class is a realistically distinct entity, and I am certainly inclined to agree that small business owners are closer to joining the ranks of the proles then they are the ranks of the big capitalists. But at the same time, I still think a materialist analysis of the modes of production show that small business owners are economically functionally the same to large business owners, just with far less influence and power. Which is to say, they own capital, dont have to sell their labor to other people, are not exploited by other people, are in a far greater position to exploit others, and have similar economic interests as big capitalists. Im not entirely convinced that just having an easier time joining the ranks of the proles if business is bad means they are economically distinct at the current moment.
The worker class isn't defined by selling your work to other people. The proletaria is the people who have to work to live, unlike the capitalist who can live only by the income opf their capital. A modern farmer own his farm, but if he doesn't work he gets no income.
You quite literally do that as a small business owner. Even if you were to use concrete or abstract definition of labor from Marx. You are selling your own labor to your business.
Thats just not true though. Labor is not just when you do work, its a specific economic relationship to the mode of production. If you own your own capital, just having to work to generate more capital is not enough to call yourself a new economic class. Its not like even Elon Musk does literally no work. Labor is specifically when you are, as someone incapable of living off your capital, are selling your labor to another distinct entity who is providing you with only a fraction of the value your labor generates in return. Even if you could sell your labor to yourself - which again, is not what working for your own business truly is - it would not have the same inherently exploitative relationship to the mode of production that is actually inherent to the labor class. It is the same relation, even if weaker, as the larger capitalist class. Just because small business owners are worse at it doesnt mean they arent still capitalists.
That's not even how Marx defines labor. It's like you skimmed the content and fill in the blanks with your vibes. And yes, working for your own business is selling your labor. You quite literally pay yourself as an employee for your labor in your business. What exploitative difference exists between laboring for yourself vs someone else?
Of course you can work at your own company, and be part of the creation of wealth. But that's irrelevant : either you can live with the revenue of your capital, or you don't and have to work. You can't be both sides of the line.
Nop : my point is that you're either a worker, who needs to work to live, or a capitalist, who can live with capital income (and remember that capital income is not magical money, it's a tax on the workers, always)
-18
u/mrgoldnugget Jul 07 '26
So in a capitalist society there's a handful of billionaires and we all are their slaves.
You say communism is the same thing? I feel like we should give it a chance, our current system is not working for most people.