postfuedal

      Our 21st Century society has moved long beyond the fuedal system of production.
There is no clearly defined ruling class that owns all of the mode of production and mean
of production or a lower class that has neither. We also, however, do not have a simply
capitalist system of production either.
       Because of copyrights, patents, and small businesses, anyone can own a means of
production. Even a homeless beggar can create some piece of intellectual property that
can be marketed, sold, or replicated as a service - perhaps a new invention on how to best
insulate one's body from the cold wind that is so unique that he gets it patented. This same
beggar may, in addition to this, find a job working at a McDonald's. In this scenario, the
beggar is a capitalist because he owns a productive invention - a means of production. He
may or may not also be able to own the mode of production. This would indicate that he is
a capitalist.
      But, as McDonald's employee he owns no part of either the mean or mode of
production. This would clearly mean that, in this case, he is not a capitalist but instead a
non-owner.
      One's status in this system of production can also change. Take, for example, the
film students who created the movie The Blair Witch Project. They created a tool with
which people could find pleasure and marketed it to a mass audience. They own the means
of production. They, therefore, were capatalists.
      But, when a larger group of capitalists, a major motion picture company, saw their
tool they offered to buy it. The Blair Witch Project, the property and means of production
of the film students, was sold for one million dollars. These students were now non-
owners in the relations production - they did not own any part of the means or mode of
production. But, they did this by choice. They could have reproduced and distributed their
tool on their own, assumably on a smaller scale, but retained ownership and status of a
capitalist.

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