Drake saying no to the conventional class system of lower, middle and upper class, but saying yes to the marxist distinction based on one’s ownership of means of production and the ability to profit off of another class’s labor.
Proletarians sell the value of their labor to bourgeois who profit off of the excess value the workers produce, and typically own the means and infrastructure of production, be it a factory or a farm, or in more recent and digital times, usually the “Cloud”, ad space, the social media platform (youtube, facebook, twitter), and digital marketplace (Amazon, who has monopsony power on digital sellers)
If we say that class is a person's relation to labor and the means of production, bourgeois own the means of production and purchase labor to extract profit, proletarians do not own the means of production and must sell there labor, then there are examples of people who have some characteristics of either class and don't necessarily fit into either class.
Artisans are people who are an expert at a skill and sometimes own the means of production for their craft. They own the things that they create and do not sell their labor to the bourgeoisie. They sell the things that they make.
Small business owners may either own the means of production and not be able to purchase labor, or they may be able to purchase labor but not be able to afford the means of production. Some small business owners are not successful enough at extracting profits, that they also have to sell their own labor.
I think it's important to recognize this class of people because it is presented in American culture as the "American Dream". In American culture, people are taught to believe that the ideal lifestyle involves both selling your labor and extracting labor value from others. This is what I believe is the real "middle class". It is "middle class" because it has a mix of characteristics between bourgeois and prole. It is maybe why so many people want to call themselves middle class. It is really nefarious because it blurs the lines drawn of class conflict
The ruling class is someone who primarily uses capital to gain capital.
The working class is someone who primarily uses labor to gain capital.
An artisan is clearly selling their labor. “But they own their own tools” is so astoundingly irrelevant.
Artisans don't experience the same alienation, though. They aren't alienated from the means or the product of their work.
No it's not irrelevant because Marx says that people gain class consciousness through recognizing that they are exploited by the people who purchase their labor. The artisan doesn't experience the same struggle as someone who sells their labor directly to a capitalist.
The problem is not "selling your labor". Exploitation occurs by surplus labor value being extracted from your labor. The exploitation is that the capitalist pays the proletarian less than their labor value produces. When an artisan sells things that they have made, they receive their full labor value.
The artisan is not being directly exploited by the capitalist and therefore probably does not see capitalists as the "ruling class".
There's no such thing as pure class. Marx is explicit that his analysis is abstraction to aid understanding.
Does the artisan or "small business owner" have student or business loans to a bank? Do they pay rent or a mortgage? They are exploited by capital.
Artisans class consciousness is affected by the fact that access to capital and self determination is kind of pay walled. Artisans are often the children of bourg and petty bourg, or aspirational intellectual proletariat. Noone else can afford to go to art school or conservatory for 6 years and support themselves unless their patents are rich or at least well-off.
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