[Marxism] If you want to identify the ruling class, you have to decide what is a social class.

[Jim Farmelant]

On Sat, 1 Nov 2008 21:37:50 -0700 "johnaimani" <johnaimani at earthlink.net>
writes:
> Ask any 'Marxist' how is it that class is determined and she/he will 
> no doubt aver "Class is determined by ones relationship to the means 
> of production".  Ask them what that means and they can't tell you.  
> These is a scientific analysis of class and that is that class is 
> determined by the value-composition of the product one sells.
> 
> The constituents of value are c + v + s.  
> 
> Now c + v, in the hands of the capitalist, equal C (for Capital that 
> can be used to purchase constant  (c) and varariable (v) capitals).
> 
> And v + s, when controlled by the worker, equal l (for the full 
> value of the labor of the worker.). 
> 
> We are then led to this formulation of the classes:
> 
> Working Classes
> 
>     Wage-worker - v (the wage worker has only hir's labor-power (v)  
> to sell)
> 
>     Independent worker - c + l (the IW must have hir's own means of 
> production (c) and owns the full value of hir's labor (l)
> 
>     Petit-Bourgeois - (c + l) + (v + s) (the PB owns the constant 
> capital hir uses (c) and hir's own labor (l) + purchase the 
> labor-power of hir's workers (v) and             owns the surplus 
> produced by the worker (s))
> 

Where do so-called "unproductive" workers fit in this scheme
(for example retail workers, workers in finance, advertising etc?
As I understand it, their labor does not add to the value produced,
so they are in effect paid out of surplus value.  But they are certainly
not capitalists.

> Capitalist Classes
> 
>     Petit-Bourgeois - (c + l) + (v + s) (the PB owns the constant 
> capital hir uses (c) and hir's own labor (l) + purchase the 
> labor-power of hir's workers (v)                 and owns the 
> surplus produced by the worker (s))
> 
>     Capitalist - C
> 
>         Industrial - (Cp) where p stands for enterprise profit
>         Rent - (Cg) where g stands for ground-rent
>         Financial - (Ci) where i stands for interest
> 
> It will be noted above that the PB lies in both classes, or rather 
> is a hybrid of both classes.  This is so because hir's own labor (l) 
> is necessary  to maintain hir (i.e. hir can neither maintain hir's 
> position solely by hir's own work (in that case hir would be an IW); 
> nor can hir maintain that position solely by exploiting wage-labor 
> (in that case hir would be a capitalist).
>> 
 
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