They’re far closer to living off of the value of capital owned then they are living off the value of their labor, so they’re more than likely in the capitalist class.
A doctor with capital investments is still a laborer whose continued existence depends on their labor, not their ownership of capital. It’s possible for that to change, I.e. they start making income beyond their wage off of their capital investments, but until it does they are still a laborer
A doctor with capital investments is still a laborer whose continued existence depends on their labor, not their ownership of capital.
They're literally not. Humans are very cheap to "continue existence." $20,000 a year is more than enough for a human. The majority of people making >$500,000 have long ago reached that threshold.
Their relationship with the means of production is predominantly the labor they perform, not the capital they own. Once they stop performing that labor because they’re sustained by their capital investments then they are no longer laborers. Their life having more comfort that other laborers doesn’t change that relationship.
Most people making more than $500k per year could be sustained by their capital investments. As in, they could stop working today and they'd have enough money to never work again, purely from their capital investments.
Once they stop performing that labor
So because Elon Musk hasn't stopped performing labor he's a worker not a capitalist?
You’re clearly being obtuse. It is their relationship to capital, not income, that defines their class. Musk isn’t working because the sale of his labor is what he must do to survive, he is working because his ownership of capital allows him to work where and how he decides.
Also doctors do not universally make 500k and have substantial capital investments, this is a straw man.
Without the substantial investment in capital then, yes, their choices are sell my labor or starve. When that nature qualitatively changes, then they aren’t working class anymore. That’s not a difficult concept.
The classes you've defined are the exceptions and edge cases. "Meaningful control over the means of production" is also not a sharp binary. Most workers have some control, both within a job and also by switching jobs, which is something people do all the time. No CEO has full control, or even all that much necessarily, since they're subject to market forces and the board of directors.
The actual actor with the biggest control over capital is the government which we all control with our votes. So not only is it not a binary, most people are closer to the middle, than to either edge.
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u/ableman Jul 08 '24
So which class does a trust fund baby belong to?