Why Seize the Means of Production, When You Can Build It Yourself?

The Marxist have always been about 'seizing the means of production'.

Which has always been weird to me. What a silly idea, i would think. Just start your own manufacturing company. And this was back before we had CNC machining and robotics.

Today it is stupidly easy to being manufacturing on your own.

But, the Marxists still want to 'seize the means of production'.

Maybe they just want to seize things?

What do Marxists actually want?

This is really a weird question, because we are dealing with two really different problems, and we have both a social issue and a moral issue.

In one sense, you have the poor and the rich. If we all started off equally poor, over time, there would be the poor and the rich. Reset it, and it will be the same again, and almost always the same people. (lottery winners are usually more broke then the were before winning)

So, the poor are jealous, envious of the rich. And, this is pretty close to "the bourgeoisie and the proletariat".

The big problem is the poor spend all their money trying to feel rich, usually digging a bigger hole for themselves, and the rich pinch every penny saving for a rainy day, and so, after a while, seem to have a large pile of money.

And the proletariat are envious. They (each) want that big pile of money. However, if it was doled at evenly, it would be less than a dollar per worker.

The proletariat seem to believe that all the equipment and manufacturing ability came out of nothing. And that the only thing involved in making stuff is their labor. They see their labor, and nothing else. And so, the falsely compare "everything" to nothing, and find imbalance.

I wish what the proletariat wanted was an even piece of the pie. But they don't, what they seem to want is for them (each) to have the "fat cat" position. And that can never be.

A bigger problem, the class above the bourgeoisie

Those who got rich because they pinched every penny are not really the problem.

It is a class that has robbed, through stealth, skimmed a portion of all production without adding anything to that production. This class OWNS the money. And through fractional reserve lending, sucks up about half of all people's labor.

This class has used their power and (free) money to buy up control of most of the large corporations (in fact, corporations exist because of these villainous people)

So, the bourgeoisie vs.the proletariat is really a misnomer. It is just a simple tool, to affect the simple minds of the working class. Give them something to hate. How many Marxists do we hear shouting, "End the Fed"?

Like the workers do not see any of the other parts of the means of production (acquiring a building, acquiring tools, building tooling, negotiating raw material procurement, getting loans, payroll, sales, investors…) they do not see who is really stealing their labor. And if they do not see the bigger picture, they will always be mad at the wrong people.

It has never been easier to be the means of production

Instead of 'seizing' the means of production, it has never been easier to become the means of production.

With 3D printers, CNC machining and robotics, you can pretty much manufacture anything you want. And, you could start your own company, and then you can own all the profits, because you put in all the labor and all the materials.

It is getting easier and easier to build things yourself. So many processes, instead of needing huge machines, are becoming much smaller and versatile. Things we used to forge with 100 Ton presses are now billet machined, or cut and welded with better repeatability and strength.

This will be the future. When the "subsidies" stop flowing through China, Cheap Chinese goods will be a thing of the past, and local manufacturing will be much more competitive.

So, why aren't Marxists starting their own manufacturing plants?

Is making money something to be detested? Often that is a real issue.

Is actually producing something of worth to be abhorred? This is a real stumbling block with neo-liberals. Even the making of necessary items is "capitalist". Something to be shunned.

Is making the world a better place, through everyone having a refrigerator, something unthinkable? The Marxist will shout that everyone should have a fridge, but few of them think about building fridges. Do they think that some rich person has ALL the fridges, and are just hoarding them? The Marxist mind refuses to see this as a shortage of fridges in the world, and the solution, the only solution, is to build more fridges.

It appears to me that Marxists only want to 'seize' the means of production because it is taking away (stealing) from those who they envy. If it is envy that we are looking to solve, then taking away things from the one you envy is the only way to alleviate that emotion. Of course, this relief is short lived, because it fixed nothing.

All images in this post are my own original creations.