Small stockholders and the means of production.

[Crabbensmasher]

In the 21st century, many enterprises are publicly traded companies. Anybody can own shares, and in many cases, companies are owned by thousands of individual people. I have two questions:

1). If a company is owned by thousands of proletariat small stockholders, who really owns the means of production? Lots of 'middle class' people own stocks in retirement funds pension schemes and college education funds. BUT these people are not bourgeoisie because they do not get their source of livelihood from surplus value. Their livelihood still mainly comes from wages.

2). What is the CEO and board of directors? They definitely manage the means of production because they run the company on a day to day basis. But while their livelihood is tied up to the profitability of the company, they don't directly OWN the means of production.


Do we have to limit what we call 'bourgeoisie' to full time investors like Donald Trump? But even he probably owns stock in thousands of different businesses. He probably owns 0.5% here, 2% there, 0.01 percent here and so forth. Some full time investors probably don't even directly own any means of production, they just constitute a small part of the ownership of many businesses (alongside thousands of other investors).

[Rudolf]

In the 21st century, many enterprises are publicly traded companies. Anybody can own shares, and in many cases, companies are owned by thousands of individual people.

I have two questions:

1). If a company is owned by thousands of proletariat small stockholders, who really owns the means of production? Lots of 'middle class' people own stocks in retirement funds pension schemes and college education funds. BUT these people are not bourgeoisie because they do not get their source of livelihood from surplus value. Their livelihood still mainly comes from wages.


We must remember that class analysis isn't a means to lump everyone into boxes but to look at the relations of production in society. It's possible for one person to have both proletarian and bourgeois relationships such as a wage labourer who supplements their wages through being a landlord or via shares.



2). What is the CEO and board of directors? They definitely manage the means of production because they run the company on a day to day basis. But while their livelihood is tied up to the profitability of the company, they don't directly OWN the means of production. They are acting as the representatives of capital, this is the same role as living members of the bourgeoisie.




Do we have to limit what we call 'bourgeoisie' to full time investors like Donald Trump? no because there's also the petit bourgeoisie who don't extract enough surplus value to mean they don't have to labour



But even he probably owns stock in thousands of different businesses. He probably owns 0.5% here, 2% there, 0.01 percent here and so forth. Some full time investors probably don't even directly own any means of production, they just constitute a small part of the ownership of many businesses (alongside thousands of other investors).

If your entire livelihood comes from ownership of capital then whether this capital is concentrated in one business or a million you're still the haute bourgeoisie.