"Capitalism" and "capitalist society" are not synonyms. _Most_ of the activity in a capitalist society is _not_ part of (though profoundly affected by) capitalism. Public schools are clearly a major institution of most capitalist societies, and it is capitalist politics that determine the pay and working conditions of public school employees (teachers, janitors, etc). But teaching clearly does not create value (in the Marxist sense of "value." In the early 20th-c a large part of the population consisted of independent farmers, small merchants, independent professionals, school teachers, government employees, etc Doug writes " But the essence of the p.b. is to be between classes," but this is obviously false in reference to teachers, physicians, or social workers.
My guess is that police, lower level managers, are simply declassed. Perhaps they could be usefully termed running dogs & capitalist lackeys.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Carrol Cox Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2017 12:46 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Petty Bourgeois (was "Big Business Takes Distance... ")
But the essence of the p.b. is to be between classes, the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. They vacillate, and are politically unreliable. I’m talking middle managers, engineers, etc.
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No. The (classical) pb were _outside_ capitalism, independent peasantry being the essence of the class.
Carrol
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