i think this ignores the material demographic reality that whereas when that quote was said most of the world was the proletariat, now most of the world is middle class (at least, the world that Lemmy users live in)
“Most of the world” is definitely not petite bourgeois (which is what “middle class” is supposed to mean), neither in the west nor elsewhere. There are only ~36E6 small businesses in the US, many of which share owners and some of which are just shell companies. Even if we assume that every small business was owned by a single person, it’s still only around 10% of the population, in the “most entrepreneurial” country in the west.
i think this ignores the material demographic reality that whereas when that quote was said most of the world was the proletariat, now most of the world is middle class (at least, the world that Lemmy users live in)
“Most of the world” is definitely not petite bourgeois (which is what “middle class” is supposed to mean), neither in the west nor elsewhere. There are only ~36E6 small businesses in the US, many of which share owners and some of which are just shell companies. Even if we assume that every small business was owned by a single person, it’s still only around 10% of the population, in the “most entrepreneurial” country in the west.