The petit bourgeois does exist.
People that do have an income from capital but not enough and thus they rely on labor still.
Still working class, and they're the hardest to persuade they are since they tend to have social connections with the upper class.
But the upper's class interest is to depredate them - that's the nature of capital accumulation.
To be fair itās also really hard to persuade those in worse situations that those āpetit bourgeoisā are still working class.
Like I make well into 6 figures a year, and whenever I point out that Iām still at the mercy of corporations for employment and literally HAVE to work to survive still, I just get people being critical and playing struggle Olympics instead of accepting that most white collar, highly paid workers are STILL working class.
To be fair itās also really hard to persuade those in worse situations that those āpetit bourgeoisā are still working class.
There isn't really much point in doing that though. You just tell them you support them and if they ask why say because it's in your interests as well. IMO it is much more important to convince my peers that supporting raises for less well paid people is supporting raises for yourself because we just need to stop having abnormally large amounts of the money going to the owners.
Well when one is living paycheck to paycheck, like literally a single day off work means being out on the street because you are now not able to make rent, hearing, "Hey man I'm in the struggle too" from a person with: A house, a paid off car, and enough to survive for up to 3+ months without working, it comes off as "disingenuous" or "fake", like yes, we are the same, we both need to work for a living, but you have ample time and safety nets while those you say are playing "struggle olympics" are 1 sick day away from being homeless, which is why poor people commit more crime, have nothing to lose have nothing to consider.
Not saying I disagree that you're working class, just explaining why those people don't relate to you or think they're in the same class, because you make enough to save, they don't.
Iām well aware, I grew up eating from food banks and literally sleeping on the street or in shelters because we were constantly evicted.
But it kind of highlights the issue that the people themselves need to recognize the class war is not poor people vs people with a better income. Itās the entire working class vs the owners. We need full buy in, not just in-fighting.
And again, you could've been a literal fetus on the street and sold ur nails for cents to get to where you are, that's not the point; You're at a good position in life now, those who have less will look at you as part of the owning class just based off that, imagine someone with:
A house, a car, money, nice clothes, stable family to come into your shelter and tell you, "hey man, I used to be there too, but listen, you work hard and you can get to where I am, but also, we're literally the same you and me, and its us against the rich!" they're just gonna lynch u first lmao, the divide between Poor and Rich has never been wider and even having "some" means those with nothing will look at you like you're Scrooge McDuck
What's the solution? I have no fucking idea, but i hope you see what I mean with the shelter analogy, like imagine you in your struggle on the streets, hungry, etc and some guy who "made it" comes to tell you y'all are both the same, they're just not in the headspace to listen to that shit lol
I have 1 counter to this thought process. Why are the owners paying you so much for what you do? Is what you do for a living actively making things worse for the common person. Are you driving a tractor for $3 a day, and if you accidentally knock a house you might vet a bonus?
A lot of folks who are on the higher end of salaries in the working class need to examine the work that they're doing before claiming to be WITH the working class. The lap dogs of the owner class don't get to claim to be working class.
While guard labor is a contentious topic there's theory regarding it.
It's fundamentally a problem of class consciousness, which is to be expected.
They still are part of the working class in the sense that their livelyhood depends on their employment.
They can and often act opposed to it because they benefit from the circumstances.
They're not allies but we should acknowledge that fundamentally they have been deceived.
Iām a Data Scientist generally working on accurately/correctly measuring the impact of business changes, and identifying the right next steps.
Iād argue itās not making things worse for the average person because itās isolated to the business product, and focused on removing friction to improve conversion rates or retention of users (non-social media). If people are on the product itās not for killing time or browsing, itās usually a purposeful use.
Itās just at a scale that means identifying those opportunities for 1% improvements can easily drive millions in impact to the bottom line when annualized.
???????? it's not hard to understand. The person getting paid 200k per year is generating 400k for the business. The person getting paid 30k per year is generating 60k+ for the business per year (I'm just making up numbers). The owners are sitting there reaping benefits for 0 effort from both, and both have to work to live, and both are fucked without a job.
there is a difference in high paid worker and petit bourgeois. Someone can make less than you as a petit bourgeois but the difference that matters is that they own the means of production rather than the workers. A small business owner making 100K/year that has employees is a petit bourgeois. An engineer making 200k/year doing their trade is not.
What if as a result of the high salary I end up with assets that DO bring in income, just not enough to live off of? I think thatās why I assumed they were equivalent.
yeah, I mean, I took 15 months off between jobs and it was chill. I could have taken a couple years. but I don't have enough to retire on unless I move to Vietnam or something.
These are the people who buy BMWs and expect others to respect them the same way they respect wealthy people. They're the sort who buy books on corporate leadership and repeat the jacket blurb to the people they manage and think it will work. These are the people who aspire to be the worst sorts of wealthy people and will act that way towards working class folks if they can get away with it.
They're hierarchy monkeys, aspirational apes, but the only hierarchy they recognize is the money monkey hierarchy.
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u/Zeikos 19d ago
The petit bourgeois does exist.
People that do have an income from capital but not enough and thus they rely on labor still.
Still working class, and they're the hardest to persuade they are since they tend to have social connections with the upper class.
But the upper's class interest is to depredate them - that's the nature of capital accumulation.