Lawyers, doctors, and middle managers are usually middle class, i.e. working class with privileges to convince them to be loyal to the bourgeoisie instead, not petit bourgeoisie.
Petit bourgeoisie are people who own enough that they can live off the labor their capital empowers them to extract from others; people whose investments pay enough dividends or accrue in value quickly enough that they can take a living wage and still have their investments increase in value.
Which is to say, petit bourgeoisie are single-digit millionaires, excluding the value of the home they live in. Small business owners, petty landlords, and also sometimes lawyers and doctors and middle managers and whatever else strikes their fancy. But when AI pulls up the ladder behind them, they can invest in AI companies and expect to be fine.
It’s more that the petite bourgeoisie own the means of production, but must still labor for their income alongside their employees. So only some lawyers and some doctors would qualify. Once you can solely live off the value of your investments and the labor of others you become haute bourgeoisie.
So if you have a bank account you’re petit bourgeoisie? Because the interest your bank is giving you comes from the bank giving you the fruits of other people’s labor extracted through your share of the ownership of the means of production.
Tell that to a child laborer in a holiday resort kitchen when he sees the children of lawyers going on holiday there.
Or tell that to those lawyers when you propose equality with the child laborers.
Ownership is already a fiction. The privileges the owning class gives to the middle class/working class traitors as long as they’re useful aren’t any less real.
As long as you don’t materially address the middle class-proletarian distinction you’ll never have a socialist revolution in a country with a powerful middle class (i.e. one that would win a civil war on the bourgeoisie’s behalf).
Lawyers, doctors, and middle managers are usually middle class, i.e. working class with privileges to convince them to be loyal to the bourgeoisie instead, not petit bourgeoisie.
Petit bourgeoisie are people who own enough that they can live off the labor their capital empowers them to extract from others; people whose investments pay enough dividends or accrue in value quickly enough that they can take a living wage and still have their investments increase in value.
Which is to say, petit bourgeoisie are single-digit millionaires, excluding the value of the home they live in. Small business owners, petty landlords, and also sometimes lawyers and doctors and middle managers and whatever else strikes their fancy. But when AI pulls up the ladder behind them, they can invest in AI companies and expect to be fine.
It’s more that the petite bourgeoisie own the means of production, but must still labor for their income alongside their employees. So only some lawyers and some doctors would qualify. Once you can solely live off the value of your investments and the labor of others you become haute bourgeoisie.
So if you have a bank account you’re petit bourgeoisie? Because the interest your bank is giving you comes from the bank giving you the fruits of other people’s labor extracted through your share of the ownership of the means of production.
Only if you also own the means of production for your career. The bank account that earns interest isn’t the means of production.
The “middle class” is a fiction created by capitalists.
The carrot that existed only because of the spectre of communism
Tell that to a child laborer in a holiday resort kitchen when he sees the children of lawyers going on holiday there.
Or tell that to those lawyers when you propose equality with the child laborers.
Ownership is already a fiction. The privileges the owning class gives to the middle class/working class traitors as long as they’re useful aren’t any less real.
As long as you don’t materially address the middle class-proletarian distinction you’ll never have a socialist revolution in a country with a powerful middle class (i.e. one that would win a civil war on the bourgeoisie’s behalf).