> >There are three
> >classes in the U.S.
> >
> >Capitalists
> >Workers
> >Petty Producers
> >
> >The term "middle class" is an infallible giveaway of moralistic or
> >otherwise muddled political thinking.
>
> Feeling rather ex cathedra today, are you?
>
> So where in your schema do you fit self-employed professionals (e.g.,
> doctors in private practice, who are now plagued by HMOs, but who
> still don't want to be socialized) or middle managers (who both boss
> and are bossed, and can vacillate between identifying as worker or
> exec)? Some people *are* in the middle in the power sense (and not
> merely the income sense).
All of these folks have control over a means of production, whether the commodity is a "good" or a "service". The all have relations with private property whereby capital is produced *for* them and not someone else. The degree may be different but the essential relation is the same.
That is why I prefer the term "petty [or petit] bourgeois". These folks will generally always "side" with the interests of capital.
Best, David -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20020811/99ce9a98/attachment.htm>