XPost: alt.anarchism, alt.politics, alt.politics.socialism   
   XPost: alt.politics.liberalism   
   From: jamesd@echeque.com   
      
       --   
   On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:03:02 GMT, Haines Brown   
   > You are correct, I believe, to point out the   
   > contemporary complexities of social class. However,   
   > the conventional Marxist distinction between those who   
   > own or control significant means of production and   
   > those who do not seems simple enough, and not only in   
   > industrial countries, but everywhere.   
      
   When you say "significant" you implicitly acknowledge it   
   is *not* so simple.   
      
   Everyone owns *some* of the means of production, and   
   some "capitalists" do not in fact own very much.   
      
   For example, for computer programmers, the main means of   
   production is a computer - but their company's computers   
   are usually worth less than the programmers own personal   
   computer.  Further, the company frequenly does not own   
   those computers, it merely leases them.   
      
   This seems to be a general rule - that you will seldom   
   find an employee using facilities and equipment that   
   costs markedly more than he could easily afford, the   
   only obvious counter example being oil refineries.   
      
   --   
     ----------------------   
   We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because   
   of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this   
   right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.   
      
   http://www.jim.com/      James A. Donald   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)