> Only about half of American workers have a retirement plan of any
> kind, and fewer than a fifth have 401(k)'s. For most working people,
> their daily experience is still about going to a job that they're
> afraid they might lose, doing what the boss says, and sucking in any
> complaints.
But what percentage of people in the developed world, and even in the developing world, have credit cards? Not to mention auto loans, home loans, and the like. Plus more and more people have to make entrepreneurial-type choices about consumption versus savings, etc. Isn't it true that debt structures more peoples' lives than ever before?
I appreciate that you demand an actual, materialist basis for these claims. It drives me nuts when Negri and, to a lesser degree, Foucault -- like Kevin Kelly -- make these flatass universalist claims about the experiences, conditions, and ideology of the working classes. But just because people don't actually own shares of Microsoft doesn't mean they aren't thinking and acting like they own shares of Microsoft. As Asad astutely says, there is a consciousness/ideology aspect that isn't solely attributable to actually material ownership. I think you are right to be skeptical about the reality of entrepreneurial society, but pointing to actual rates of ownership doesn't in itself argue against its existence.