"...and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation."
The way I look at it, it's impossible for landlords and contractors to ever come close to outnumbering workers. Every landlord needs tenants (on average more than one) and every contractor needs laborers (on average more than one). I'd say the average is 10:1. 10 workers supporting each petite bourgeois landlord or manager. So you have 1% defended by a 10% against the 90%.
That's a bit of a simplification. Say we accept that 10-1 ratio for landlords and small businessmen. Each employee at the business is also a tenant for the landlord. That's 10 Proletarians and 2 petit bourgeoisie. Say each has a stay-at-home spouse. That's 4 leeches. Maybe one of them took over the family business when their father retired. Thats 5. Most likely more. The petit bourgeois tend to form extended clan networks.
That's not even getting into the managerial class. Middle management, lawyers, insurance agents, realators...
I like this quote but unfortunately the part right afterward ruins it pretty badly.
Yeah. :(
From State of the Union Address: Abraham Lincoln (December 3, 1861)
Ugh. He goes on to basically deny class conflict because there exist people who aren't capitalists or laborers and apparently they're the majority.
Who are these mysteriously silent people who've apparently existed for almost 200 years in this country without ever being seen or heard?
At the time, they were the small farmers. Now it's landlords, contractors, and other petit bourgeoisie. I think people underestimate their numbers.
The way I look at it, it's impossible for landlords and contractors to ever come close to outnumbering workers. Every landlord needs tenants (on average more than one) and every contractor needs laborers (on average more than one). I'd say the average is 10:1. 10 workers supporting each petite bourgeois landlord or manager. So you have 1% defended by a 10% against the 90%.
That's a bit of a simplification. Say we accept that 10-1 ratio for landlords and small businessmen. Each employee at the business is also a tenant for the landlord. That's 10 Proletarians and 2 petit bourgeoisie. Say each has a stay-at-home spouse. That's 4 leeches. Maybe one of them took over the family business when their father retired. Thats 5. Most likely more. The petit bourgeois tend to form extended clan networks.
That's not even getting into the managerial class. Middle management, lawyers, insurance agents, realators...
Fair, but they're still the minority.