Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844

K Marx - Social Theory Re-Wired, 2016 - api.taylorfrancis.com
Social Theory Re-Wired, 2016api.taylorfrancis.com
We have proceeded from the premises of political economy. We have accepted its language
and its laws. We presupposed private property, the separation of labour, capital and land,
and of wages, profit of capital and rent of land—likewise division of labour, competition, the
concept of exchange-value, etc. On the basis of political economy itself, in its own words, we
have shown that the worker sinks to the level of a commodity and becomes indeed the most
wretched of commodities; that the wretchedness of the worker is in inverse proportion to the …
We have proceeded from the premises of political economy. We have accepted its language and its laws. We presupposed private property, the separation of labour, capital and land, and of wages, profit of capital and rent of land—likewise division of labour, competition, the concept of exchange-value, etc. On the basis of political economy itself, in its own words, we have shown that the worker sinks to the level of a commodity and becomes indeed the most wretched of commodities; that the wretchedness of the worker is in inverse proportion to the power and magnitude of his production; that the necessary result of competition is the accumulation of capital in a few hands, and thus the restoration of monopoly in a more terrible form; that finally the distinction between capitalist and land-rentier, like that between the tiller of the soil and the factoryworker, disappears and that the whole of society must fall apart into the two classes—the property-owners and the propertyless workers.
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