Karl Marx based his early critiques of capitalism upon one key concept: the alienation of labor under the capitalist economic system. This term is not based upon subjective (unique to each worker) feelings of estrangement or of difficult, tedious unsatisfying work (though anyone who has worked in a factory or cubicle may well attest to these as well). Rather, Marx based his idea of alienation upon the dehumanization of the worker. Under capitalism, working people become commodities, just like wheat or oil or copper. Workers under capitalism lose their status as free, thinking, creative bein...

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