Is there literally any kind of Marxist basis for this asshole's position? Baristas grind up beans and add hot water and hot milk, and thus their labor turns the coffee beans and milk into a commodity. It's textbook extraction of surplus value. Am I missing something there? Is it because the beans and milk are also commodities, or what? Can someone explain this to me?

    • TerminalEncounter [she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      The word merely in "they are merely agents of circulation" is doing a lot of work lol. Yeah, they're adding value. It's going from grounds to finished coffee and some minor book keeping through the cash register. Does anyone argue railway workers aren't proletariat because they merely move commodities from one place to another?? How are service workers more "agents of circulation" than the Amazon truck driver?

    • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      This is not even Marx, this was the basis of 19th century classical liberal economics upon which Marx built his thesis on.

      Adam Smith observed three economic classes: those who earn money through rent (landlord), those who earn money through profit (bourgeoisie), and those who earn money through the wage (proletariat).