infographic titled “What class are you a member of?”
sub title: “Lower class? Middle class? Upper class?”
in a central box, text: “The truth is, your class has nothing to do with your level of personal income, but everything to do with your relationship to the means of production. Under capitalism there are only two broad categories of social class: the capitalist class and the working class.”
bellow, on the left a box with text:
“The Capitalist Class
The capitalist class are people who are private owners of the means of production. The means of production are anything used in the process of production, including our workplaces, factories, tools, machinery, land, infrastructure, natural resources, and so on. By simply owning the means of production, these private owners are allowed to take for themselves the products and wealth created by the labor of the working class.”
on the right a box with text:
“The Working Class
The working class are people are are not owners of the means of production. Because they don’t have any ownership of the means of production, these workers have no choice but to sell their time and labor, the very substance of their lives, to members of the capitalist class in exchange for wages which equal less than the full value of their work.”
bellow in another central box, text: “The capitalist class, and the working class. Exploiters and exploited. Which are you?”
How does ownership of stocks fit into this dichotomy? It seems like there are lots of workers who increasingly own but do not control the means of production through 401k or other investments.
They aren’t wealthy enough to stop working, but they do empower lots of rich ghouls to make predatory decisions on their behalf.
That’s a good question, I would say it depends on whether the money you make from stock is your sole income or if you still need to work to survive. Either way though it’s playing in to capitalism, almost definitely unethical, and ultimately self defeating to almost anyone who needs to work for a living (upholding the corporations that oppress us. The exception is if you own stock in the company you work for and you get an equal vote on how the workplace is run)