>Working class people own their skills which they sell
>on the labour market to an employer for a wage. Non-working class
people can
>sell their skills and time as well e.g. an independent tailor or an
>independent
>doctor. They are not working class because they own/ they are paid
for the
>product of their labour, in this case a service.
Bill asked:
Where do you get this bullshit? *****************
A piece-rate worker in a sweat-shop gets paid according to the product of her labour. What has that got to do with the price of tea in China? If she isn't working class then what is she? ***********************
You're right. These people must sell their skills and time on the marketplace for a price. The price they get for it varies according to how many pieces they produce. The pieces they produce are worth way more than the price-wage they are paid for producing them.
Sorry for the oversight. I'd never worked in a sweatshop.
****************
I wrote:
> They are not selling their
>skills and time to an employer who will then own the goods and/or
services of
>their labour.
Bill responded:
Of course they are.
******** Mike B) Right again. I made a mistake in typing "not" in the They are selling.." sentence. ************** Bill: You are making an absurd fetish out of the difference between being a bricklayer being paid by the hour for laying bricks, or getting paid according to the number of bricks laid. Either way, in substance, the bricklayer sells his labour power. Either way, the labourer's relationship to the means of production is the same, either way they have to work for a living.
********** Agreed. The social relation is the same. My point is that the producers do not own the the social product of their labour--this is part of the written or unwritten contract law on which wage-labour is based. The own their skills and time which they sell to an employer. The difference in wealth between the price the working class gets for its skills and the wealth which is generated by them is what I call "exploitation".
Thanks for the heads-up on piece-work, Mike B)
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