A Little Bit of This...A Little Bit of That

I've read The Communist Manifesto before, but it has never dawned on me how much Marx likes capitalism.  Attributing many inventions, classes and lifestyles to capitalism, he seems to take the approach that capitalism as progressed our society.  We have moved from enslavement to feudalism to capitalism, each time making horrible conditions a little better for the worker.  Marx believes that the bourgeoisie has paved the way for this "revolution of capitalism", or so to speak.  Capitalism is good for the creation of new technologies, jobs & opportunities, free trading, political restructuring, social restructuring, and so on.  All these contribute to the growth and prosperity of a nation and world.  After all, the bourgeoisie would not be the working middle class it was without the effects capitalism has produced.

But, of course, Marx finds some downsides to capitalism.  Man has divided labor and then has created machines to help/do most of the labor.  The products created from this system has lost "all individual character" (61).  They do not show the careful stitching of the sewer, the considerate craftsmanship of the table maker or the thoughtful engineering of the bricklayer.  Machines produce a finished project, not a work of art.  So what use is the sewer, table maker or the bricklayer?  They are all just instruments of labor, performing meaningless work day after day.  So capitalism has taken away individualism and then, has again enslaved the worker.  This is why the workers have tried to form unions and unite to help save themselves.  This is why capitalism must again transform into another form...a form that is a little better for the worker.