It was Marx who invented the proletarians. Under feudalism, each family owned the means of production: a loom, a mill, a smithery, a bakery, a watchmaking shop. In capitalist production, artisans cannot compete against large factories so they lose their livelihoods. To produce, people needs access to the means of production: machines, distribution chains, patents, etc. Those who own those things employ those who dont and extract a profit from their work.
Do I own the means of production? No, I have no machines nor patents nor anything. I have to sell my work to those owning the means of production and who can make my work useful. I am, by definition, a proletarian.
Addition: One problem to this definition is that about half of my work cannot be classified as productive since its only purpose is to fulfil regulatory requirements. The capitalist owners of the means of production - chicken farms, industrial factories, restaurants, catering services, etc. - need to comply with regulations including submittal of complicated documents, which I do. They need me to be able to operate, so in that narrow sense, I am productive. Do they exploit me? My clients feel otherwise, that I am exploiting them and producing useless documents.
Another half of my work - in the University - consists in providing some engineering techniques to young people and grant them certification to exercise the civil engineering trade. Am I productive? I think so. Am I being exploited by the owner of the means of production (the University of Ariel)? In this case, the staff is well organized in unions and extract good conditions from the employer. The employer transmits this cost to the State and to the tuition paying students.
Another half of my work (I work much more than full time) is bona fide hydraulic design. In this case, my employers are contractors and builders, who have the financial and physical capability of building up a project. Do they exploit me? Sure they try - for them, I am an input whose cost must be reduced to zero.
5 comments:
You are a champion of the average man.
Salut!
You are better than a capitalist - you carry your means of production on top of your neck. As long as you have your neck, you have your livelihood. The Socialists can expropriate the capitalist's assets but they can't take yours. What's more, your skill set is needed under all regimes.
K
Such cogent reasoning will earn you a bullet in the Gulag.
Ivan
Comrade J, you know that Marx has scientifically demonstrated that class determines consciousness. Why then do you have doubts regarding your class origins? I warn you against further displays of rootless cosmopolitanism.
Ivan
College degrees and certifications count as capital. You have them. Congrats! You are a petty bourgeois. The proletarian is an unskilled worker.
Also, you are probably being exploited by people who are using you to exploit others. So don't get too excited.
If capitalism weren't so productive, people would have noticed how unfair it is and tried to overthrow it a long time ago. As it is, who cares if you are being exploited, as long as you are happier than if you weren't being exploited?
It is good to be a slave.
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