|| -----Original Message-----
|| From: Yoshie Furuhashi
||
|| Can you (and your dependents, if you have any) live on your privately
|| owned financial assets (= claims on surplus value produced by others)
|| alone, without work (for yourself or others) and without Social
|| Security (and the like that may be better called deferred solidarity
|| wages)? That's the question that excludes most people from the ranks
|| of the bourgeoisie. Most people have only their house, vehicle, & a
|| little savings (that can support them perhaps for some months) to
|| their names, if they have any assets at all.
|| --
|| Yoshie
||
The vertiginous rise of the US Gini in the last 20 years and the parallel rise of right-wing politicians, lobbies, and media funded by the top bourgies like Ken Lay prompts me to think: Isn't class also about how much political power you can buy, as opposed to work for?
You may be a Florida retiree with no means of production whatsoever to your name but your nest egg may be big enough to buy privileged access to Jeb Bush's inner sleaze circle. Or maybe you're a Palo Alto geek who cashed in on his stock options, set up his own company, decided if (me = "loaded") { politics = "GOP"; } and started funding some pols so he could keep more of his stash and maybe qualify for some local government pork.
OTOH you could be a wage-earning Peronist activist in the '50's and still enjoy considerable political clout, but that would mean work. And who can say Subcommandante Marcos is rolling in it?
So class