this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2026
24 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmygrad

1249 readers
40 users here now

A place to ask questions of Lemmygrad's best and brightest

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

This question is coming from another post where I was asking what the intelligensia and petit bourgeoisie difference is (https://lemmygrad.ml/post/10748355)

This is a comment I left when discussing: "This one is really difficult for me to grasp, it’s probably my ignorance and lack of knowledge, but why would someone who is a small business owner that doesn’t employ any other worker be bourgeois? Are freelancers and struggling artists who are trying to get their foot in the door of an industry also in that class? I hope I don’t come off as aggressive (I just read back what I wrote and it sounds a bit like that, but I swear it isn’t :D)"

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] happybaby@hexbear.net 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Because they control more than just their labor power (some capital), but not enough capital to not have to work. They will get crushed in a downturn so I guess that's where the size reference comes in- bigger bourgeoisie can withstand bigger downturns.

Not sure why we have to use French words but c'est la vie I guess!

[–] Horse@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

the alternative would be german and no-one would take us seriously if we went around talking about the "Kleinbürgertum"

[–] happybaby@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago

Omg ok yea, case closed. French please.

[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Because French is a sexy language.

[–] happybaby@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

username checks out fellow-kids