this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
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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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[โ€“] starkillerfish@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

to me it becomes more clear if you think of in terms of ownership of means of production and class interests that arise from that. because petite bourgeois own their businesses, they will always be on the side of private property rights and against workers (small businesses are also notoriously have atrocious working conditions). so it doesn't even matter to me if they have the potential to become big businesses / conglomerates.

with that said, sometimes petite / national bourgeoisie can have a progressive character in certain contexts, but I would say definitely not in the US.

[โ€“] amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 3 months ago

Hmm, that makes sense to me.