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Question about petite bourgeoisie (small business owners) (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 3 months ago by amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml to c/asklemmygrad@lemmygrad.ml

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Was thinking about the distinctions of this and wondering...

Would it be accurate to say that the petite bourgeoisie are on the same ladder as the bourgeoisie? Or to put it in more English terms, would it to be accurate to say that small business owners are on the same ladder as Jeff Bezos? Just on a much lower rung?

Versus, in this analogy, the proletariat (or working class), are not on the ladder at all.

The idea being that the small business owner is in a less organized stage of development toward the same thing as the conglomerate (if this is happening under capitalist rule). Whereas the working class cannot organically develop in that direction (I suppose a few could through stocks, but that seems like on the level of winning the lottery).

Want to make sure I have my metaphors straight.

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[–] amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

So would someone like Jeff Bezos be an example of that "luck" since he started out small? Or would he be more of a cross between "new money" and "old money", since he also got financial help to do it?

That seems like (I am not entirely sure) the kind of distinction you're talking about, is the difference of capital that comes from "old money" (power passed down) versus "new money" (a breakthrough pf petite bourgeoisie to bourgeoisie), with the first one being the norm and the second one being the oddity because of class antagonisms/interests largely keeping petite bourgeoisie from moving upward in class.

[–] Cowbee@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 3 months ago

Bit of both, and they are usually in flux.

[–] demerit@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So would someone like Jeff Bezos be an example of that “luck” since he started out small? Or would he be more of a cross between “new money” and “old money”, since he also got financial help to do it?

Jeff Bezos (adopted) father Mike Bezos was a gusano who worked for exxon - Jeff Bezos was never small.

[–] amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 months ago

I did not know that, but either way, what I meant by "started small" is more that Amazon was an operation he started with others. I remember researching in the past that he got significant financial help with it and that most, if not all, of the programming was done by others (I specifically remember researching it to debunk the pro-billionaire mythos that he bootstrapped his way to the top). But it did technically start out as a small business and then grow. As opposed to, like, if he'd simply been handed control over an existing family company or set up for a role in a major company through family connections and education.