I understood him to advocate the overthrow of the "bourgeoisie". That is, a class of people, distinguished (among other things) by the fact that they were the ones financing (i.e., accepting the risks for) industry.
Financing means accepting the financial risks for industry. It doesn't mean accepting the risk of having your hand crushed in a cheap machine, or being poisoned by the chemicals used in the factory, etc. There is more than one kind of risk, and to imply that the investor is the only contributor to an enterprise is as stupid as saying the same thing of the laborer.
Furthermore, overthrow is a fundamentally political conflict. At the time of Marx's writing, poor people were not allowed to vote. Was that equitable? A 19th century political thinker looking at today's society would conclude that Marx had won because today everyone over 18 (with the exception of criminals in some countries) is allowed to vote. This would have been unthinkable when Marx was writing his communist manifesto.
You are assuming that the political ascendancy of a proletariat (which has arguably already happened) is directly equivalent to genocide of the middle class. Nonsensical.
Financing means accepting the financial risks for industry. It doesn't mean accepting the risk of having your hand crushed in a cheap machine, or being poisoned by the chemicals used in the factory, etc. There is more than one kind of risk, and to imply that the investor is the only contributor to an enterprise is as stupid as saying the same thing of the laborer.
Furthermore, overthrow is a fundamentally political conflict. At the time of Marx's writing, poor people were not allowed to vote. Was that equitable? A 19th century political thinker looking at today's society would conclude that Marx had won because today everyone over 18 (with the exception of criminals in some countries) is allowed to vote. This would have been unthinkable when Marx was writing his communist manifesto.
You are assuming that the political ascendancy of a proletariat (which has arguably already happened) is directly equivalent to genocide of the middle class. Nonsensical.