Communist Manifesto, By Karl Marx

Before the industrial revolution, the working class people were able to own their work, for example, a baker would have control on what kind of bread to produce, how to produce it and ultimately they were in charge of their working hours. Hence they were able to reach their full human potential. Marx called this the “species essence”. He believed that work fulfils our species essence because it allows us to be creative and hence flourish in society. But under a capitalist system Marx acknowledged 2 social classes which had existed, the bourgeoisie (those who owned the means of production and profit) and proletariat (the working class/laborers).
The problem for Marx was that the proletariat were not able express their full humanness under a capitalist system, as the bourgeoisie owned the means of production and the wealth. The proletariat were not able to express their full potential because they did not have the capability to invest in mass production, only the bourgeoisie had the means to do this. This is supported in the Marx’s Manifesto of the communist party: “the bourgeois domination of society denies all working people the full fruit of their labor and genuine flowering of national culture.” This indicates that the proletariat become too isolated to reach their full potential and

With relates to Marx theory of alienation, the majority of workers who were in the process of the production of luxury cars cannot afford it. Hence, these workers are satisfying the needs of others rather than themselves. Cox argued: “workers produce cash crops for the market when they are malnourished, build houses in which they will never live, make cars they can never buy.” This argument supports Marx’s theory of alienation as it tells us that workers produce goods which they can never afford, but ultimately the product is sold at the commercial value and so it’s not for their use, but for others