So if I am correct the Idea of libertarian class theory is that there are two classes:
is this a correct summarisation of libertarian class theory?
There are other parasitic entities aside from the state that do their share of exploiting (common criminals, etc) and you can still be exploited even if you’re unproductive. For example your leisure could be exploited from you if you were forced to work
A better class theory would be to divide initial aggression
Read until you have something to write...Write until you have nothing to write...when you have nothing to write, read...read until you have something to write...Jeremiah
Do welfare recipients fall under the exploiting class?
I am rather sceptic about class distinction - it tends to obscur the fact that the same person plays multiple roles in the society, and plays them to different degrees. Even violators of NAP cannot be all put into a single class (some persons just stealing a loaf of bread, some others killing millions).
Yes you need to be carefull when talking about class warfare and other marxistesque topics. but there is certainly a ruling class and a ruled class.
but there is certainly a ruling class and a ruled class.
Do all policemen belong to the riling class? Or only colonels and above?
What about teachers in state-run schools? Firefighters?
That sort of class theory is ridiculously simplified. Practically no one is 'innocent' of using the State to advance themselves directly or indirectly, using it's arbitrary legal system to enforce their contracts for example; and most of the people receiving the benefits aren't 'parasites' at all in my view, since all that stolen money really belongs to no one anymore and I'd just as soon some welfare queen have it as it be in the Treasury Department's coffers.
The real nature of the State is that it is a quasi-religious institution combined with bad legal/social norms that are supported and enforced indirectly by almost everyone and which benefits and punishes different people in different ways often at the same time; with a net result of making almost everyone - Joe Biden included - worse than they would be if people didn't believe in the Great God Leviathan. There are some real gangster types that enforce the state - cops, the military, major department heads like Hillary Clinton - but for the most part the bureaucrats are just paper pushers who don't know a subpoena from a submarine and would be accountants or stockbrokers if it weren't for the government paying them off.
Evilsceptic:So if I am correct the Idea of libertarian class theory is that there are two classes: The exploited class, the productive people (laborers/entrepreneurs) The exploiting class, those who live off the producers through state theft is this a correct summarisation of libertarian class theory?
Yes. While Marxists define classes in therms of ownership of the means of production, libertarian and classical liberal class theory defines classes in terms of control of the means of predation. I.e. there's a productive class that creates wealth through production and trade, and a idle class that extracts wealth from other people through the use of force. I think it is explained well here. Marx actually got his idea of a class conflict from the classical liberals, just that he reversed the roles. The exploiters are the ones who own the factories and the exploited are the ones who have to work for a wage. It was an outgrowth of anti-Semitic thought, which saw Jews as inherently greedy and evil because they tended to be merchants and capitalists. Nazi class theory was a racialist application of anti-Semitic class theory. While liberal class theory viewed the use of force as the source of exploitation, Marxists and Nazis saw a strong state as a necessity to correct the inherent unfairness of the free market.