[lbo-talk] working class?

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Tue Oct 18 11:09:07 PDT 2005


Wojtek :

That is essentially what Emmanuel Todd argues - he believes that the US as a whole - and that includes its so-called working class - is a rentier society living off property income rather than production. Different social strata may get different shares of that property income - a janitor gets a much smaller share than the CEO i.e. cheap Wal-Mart schlock made in China vs. corporate stocks, but both live off income generated - for a substantial part - by property rights rather than by producing and selling products.

^^^^ CB: Also, probably the typical janitor and the typical CEO or rich rentier still have qualitatively different relationships to the means of production. The janitor most likely cannot prevent the building she works in from being sold and jobs cut or a pension lost in bankruptcy , not to mention her being fired. Whereas the CEO or rich rentier who owns the building through portfolio can , in order to make more money, cause these to happen to the janitor ;and, the janitor can't cause economic hardship to happen to the CEO or rich rentier.



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