As are large swaths of the population. Or can be.
I was a freelancer and went back to “selling my labor” because the accounting, customer management, marketing, etc overhead were not worth the money or the stress. I could go back anytime but prefer work/life balance and stability. Am I proletariat now?
Not only that, it insists on this 1800s argument/fantasy about factory workers. In an age and economy where 70% of people work in the services sector.
I seized my means of production. Or rather, bought them on Amazon. Same for lawyers, accountants, mechanics, electricians, plumbers, cleaning people, photographers, gardeners, painters…
Fair enough. But I also get RSUs as compensation so I own a (tiny) part of the company. And a bunch of others via ETF. So I’m part bourgeois!
I just fail to see this “we must seize the means of production” Motto being applicable to current (western) capitist countries. Plenty of people can do that just by giving their notice and registering an LLC (or SL, or GmbH, or whatever your local equivalent is).
And not only highly educated elites (which arguably in the US is quite discriminatory, in Europe we have free higher education) but plenty of working class jobs can do it.
You want to seize the means of production? Put the pitchfork down, fill form 123abc and godspeed.