It means having sufficient liquid capital that you can invest it in uncertain outcomes, generally without fear of poverty or perhaps any real negative effects on one's life at all.
Owning a very expensive home in a very high cost-of-living place (or even in a not-so-high cost-of-living place) does not place a person in that position.
the most accepted way to divide in socialist circles is based off where your income comes from, your relation to capital. if you have to work for someone else thats working class (proletariat), if you can be independent you are professional or middle class, if you own the means of production for others that makes you a capitalist. owning a house is only capital class if you rent it out.
from that pov almost all tech workers are professional or working class. with founder ceos its more complicated because they own capital but also work for themselves through their company so you can take them as either. i guess it depends on if you like that person.
It's also utterly deranged even when you just consider that most tech workers get compensated with stock.
You can get money from both labor and capital. This is called "middle class." Don't let it melt your brain, but don't oversimplify to "you owned a stock so are capital class" either. Just give the labor/capital percentages (ordinary income / capital gains) and note how it leans.
New grad tech worker: 100%/0%
Mid career tech worker: 50%/50%
Late career tech worker: 10%/90%
Retired: 0%/100%
Introducing the fact that it's a spectrum and that equity ownership (which a vast majority of people in this industry have) makes you a capital owner is exactly my correction to that.
And yea, once you start getting actual capital and start reaping the benefits of that wealth you start being identified as a capitalist in the socialist world view.
Edit: the comment I replied to originally had this sentence at the end
> Very typical for a certain type of folk. It's also utterly deranged even when you just consider that most tech workers get compensated with stock.
And how many american middle class+ (generalizing beyond tech workers) don't own equity?
Our 401K match maxes out at $50 per paycheck.
I am in a lower tier of the market than Silicon Valley and after 15 years of making over six figure salary I have not been given a single stock, and none of my employees or members of my social circles that don’t work at FAANGs have either.
Note that around half of the US stock market is passively owned, so this is not a small number on aggregate
Further see: my reply to a sibling in this same thread.
Considering how you ignored the response to you asking
> Eh? Which tech company doesn't give RSUs to fresh grads? Startups of course give options.
I assume you are not here in good faith and just want to argue that all is well and good.
Don’t try and hide behind your second argument when your first point was contested and then act all indignant.
Edit:
Responding to
> Further see: my reply to a sibling in this same thread.
I found your other reply here[1], quoting in case you edit it
> Exactly. The original comment in this thread asked if most tech workers here are part of the capital class themselves. Which was answered by saying that if you're employed by someone else, you are part of the worker class and thus tech workers are part of the worker class. > Introducing the fact that it's a spectrum and that equity ownership (which a vast majority of people in this industry have) makes you a capital owner is exactly my correction to that.
You are still assuming that most tech workers are given stock grants and have equity. I fundamentally disagreed with that.
I do not believe that the vast majority of people in this industry have been given equity.
Don’t try and pretend that I am wrong because I disagree with you. Show your work or be dismissed.