Even wealthy proles would substantially and materially benefit from the overhaul capitalism. Thus, class consciousness would and should reasonably lead them to support socialism. That is the point.
Except sometimes they wouldn’t. There are people who nominally earn their income as employees who would absolutely earn less and have less privileges and “treats” under socialism. They are not a majority but they exist.
I’m not claiming this analysis is new. Of course the labor aristocracy also existed in Marx’s time. And i’m not just referring to how the working class in the imperial core broadly benefits from the exploitation of the global proletariat. I’m taking about people who even compared to the majority of the working class in the imperial core, are much more well off. These are typically the intelligentsia, highly skilled professionals, and a small portion of artists who get very lucky. As a result they are extremely individualistic and perceive things like unions or collective bargaining as dragging them down, because they are (or think they are) sufficiently irreplaceable to be able to negotiate better contracts individually. Whether or not this is actually the case is another matter, but this is how they perceive their material interests.
The point i’m trying to make is that you are discounting the impact that lifestyle and social (not economic) class has on a person’s perception of their own material interests. It’s easy to say “they just need class consciousness” but it is very hard to get people to have class consciousness when their lived experience has more in common with that of a capitalist than of the average worker (sometimes they are even better off than most petty bourgeois).
If you refuse to understand this you will be perpetually disappointed and wonder why time and again people who in theory are supposed to be working class according to their relation to the means of production, consistently act against their own class interest and reliably side with capital instead.
Like, i’m sorry, but you’re just not going to get someone who makes a six figure salary support a communist party or socialist revolution (at least not until the momentum of the revolution has grown to a point where not supporting it would be dangerous, at which point some of the petty bourgeoisie and labor aristocracy may switch sides). If you think otherwise you really need to get out more, learn how people in that income bracket think and how they align politically.
That’s not true. There are people in California that make 6 figure income that support socialism/communism. A low 6 figure income is not even enough to qualify for a 1 bedroom apartment in large parts of the bay area…
Except sometimes they wouldn’t. There are people who nominally earn their income as employees who would absolutely earn less and have less privileges and “treats” under socialism. They are not a majority but they exist.
I’m not claiming this analysis is new. Of course the labor aristocracy also existed in Marx’s time. And i’m not just referring to how the working class in the imperial core broadly benefits from the exploitation of the global proletariat. I’m taking about people who even compared to the majority of the working class in the imperial core, are much more well off. These are typically the intelligentsia, highly skilled professionals, and a small portion of artists who get very lucky. As a result they are extremely individualistic and perceive things like unions or collective bargaining as dragging them down, because they are (or think they are) sufficiently irreplaceable to be able to negotiate better contracts individually. Whether or not this is actually the case is another matter, but this is how they perceive their material interests.
The point i’m trying to make is that you are discounting the impact that lifestyle and social (not economic) class has on a person’s perception of their own material interests. It’s easy to say “they just need class consciousness” but it is very hard to get people to have class consciousness when their lived experience has more in common with that of a capitalist than of the average worker (sometimes they are even better off than most petty bourgeois).
If you refuse to understand this you will be perpetually disappointed and wonder why time and again people who in theory are supposed to be working class according to their relation to the means of production, consistently act against their own class interest and reliably side with capital instead.
Like, i’m sorry, but you’re just not going to get someone who makes a six figure salary support a communist party or socialist revolution (at least not until the momentum of the revolution has grown to a point where not supporting it would be dangerous, at which point some of the petty bourgeoisie and labor aristocracy may switch sides). If you think otherwise you really need to get out more, learn how people in that income bracket think and how they align politically.
That’s not true. There are people in California that make 6 figure income that support socialism/communism. A low 6 figure income is not even enough to qualify for a 1 bedroom apartment in large parts of the bay area…