
11 Nov 2016, 00:20
One of the many elephants in the room when it comes to Marxists is that the predicted first world revolutions never occurred. Marx predicted they would occur in places like Britain, France and Germany, not Russia, China and other developing countries. Understandably, Marxists don’t like to address this problem, nor the fact that the undeveloped conditions of the third world countries seriously hindered their efforts to build socialism. So what was the problem? The answer lies in the middle class who have proven to be the unshakable backers of capitalism in the first world.
When we talk of the middle class today, we do not mean that of Marx’s time. When Marx referred to the middle class he was referring to the bourgeoisie. These days the middle class can be broadly defined as small business owners and the upper echelons of the working class. While they are proletarians in the Marxist sense, they earn much more than just what is needed for them to replicate their labour. Because so much of their income is therefore surplus to their immediate needs, they become fully supportive of the capitalist system and often become wedded to it by investing in stocks and shares or buying property. The middle class came into existence when the bourgeoisie had exhausted the supply of cheap labour entering its home market from the countryside and gained prominent positions within the production process. This caused wages to rise which filtered down particularly to this group.
The existence of a strong middle class in most first world countries is what has kept any chance of a socialist revolution breaking out at bay. Not only do the middle classes get into positions of power and influence in politics, the media and popular culture, they can often be large enough as a voting bloc to have a significant influence in elections. But also, they provide the promise of hope and opportunity to the working class that discourages them from wanting to instigate a revolution themselves. To the working class, breaking into the middle class seems a much better option than risking everything trying to overthrow capitalism.
But these days the middle class appears to be under a lot of pressure all over the first world. A combination of automation and globalisation has destroyed a lot of middle class jobs in the first world and put a lot of downward pressure on middle class wages. Middle class people now struggle to buy houses and get well-paying jobs. Many are in huge debts from student loans and feel they cannot get started in life. It appears the baby boomers were the peak of the middle class with the rot setting in the 1970s when real wages began to stagnate. With China and India putting their huge labour forces on the world market in the 80s and 90s, middle class workers in the first world can’t compete. The internet and automation has further taken jobs – both blue and white collar – with many predicting that a vast number of current jobs will be replaced by machines over the next 30 years.
When this happens, the middle class will be largely wiped out. With fewer and fewer jobs available, wages will decline and any hope of entering the section of society which has a nice lifestyle will have vanished. Society will be divided into a mass poor class and a tiny elite made of very wealthy bourgeoisie who own all the machines. With the middle class bulwark gone, the immiserated poor will see capitalism for what it truly is (and as Marx ultimately predicted it would be) and see that there are no longer any more options. Sticking with capitalism because the middle class offered a way out for many proletarians will no longer be an option. At this point communism should become truly relevant to the vast majority of people.

05 Dec 2016, 04:43
Have a look at Trump's incoming cabinet. Destroy the middle class? I'd say they're well on their way. Let the Hunger Games begin!

19 Jan 2018, 18:40
The middle class isn't the issue, it's the upper and the poor class... Hear me out, the upper class aka the elites need to be knocked down some notches, while the poor class needs to be raised up some.
In my opinion everyone should be on the middle ground, have enough money to comfortably live, but they should not have enough to live in excess like those in Hollyweird.
If the rich could be taxed until they hurt that would be a start. All these mega churches should be taxed too.

26 Jan 2018, 00:33
Tax our way to socialism lol. Also fragging "hollyweird"? How are you real?

26 Jan 2018, 06:14
Yes I said "Hollyweird", I got my reasons. Also taxing is a start, obviously it would take more than taxes to achieve true Socialism / Communism... but I don't see the middle class as the enemies, I only see the upper class / capitalists as the enemies.