The Return of Marx

In the United Kingdom we have let finance become the primary mode of production. The new bourgoisie have been the bankers and financiers. The proletariat their "customers".
We have entred into contracts with these instititions in the form of mortgages, loans etc which they have then sold on as "assets". They do not extract the full benefit of the asset but it has become the accepted wisdom that money now is better than money later. They have also transferred the risk, which also helps to justify the reduced premium earned on their initial investment.
This is an intrinsically short term model which seeks to extract capital for the benefit of the bourgoisie as close to the point of investment as possible.
The financial proletariat get no benefit from this model - in fact the poorer you are, the more you are exploited through penal interest rates, and riskier personal financial models.
The mythology of consumption has led people to believe that money and investment in "things" (themselves transient or highly depreciating assets) is a way to achive status.
Furthermore, the idols of the proletariat, those who are considered "special" are not those who can help develop lives but those who merely exemplify this self-destructive lifstyle and achieve sufficient media coverage to attain celebrity.