Confession: I started reading this book back in late winter. We know what has happened since. A plan-demic, shutdown, and riots. Holy cow what a year.
Karl Marx wrote this book over a hundred years ago. One of the main points that have stood out to me is the profit over people mentality which we still see to this day. Whatever it takes to turn a profit is another day at the office. Oligarchs like Trump, Bezos, and others are notorious for this. We saw a payroll protection program get pushed through in the spring. Who benefited from it?
Well, let's take a quick look at who didn't benefit from it. Small businesses that had multi-generational investments in communities. They didn't get a dime because they didn't have 500 or more employees. Don't give me that hogwash "they were on the verge of closing". No! I find this argument to be convoluted and stupid because I did grow up in a small town where people helped each other until big box stores came in. There goes the neighborhood to hell in a handbasket.
Karl Marx goes into the algebraic formulas which I will spare you and my brain. The point Karl Marx made in this book was that when labor becomes a commodity, he (they) become no different than a slave for small wages. Like birds waiting for us to throw out bread crumbs. This is what Americans have become. Birds waiting for bread crumbs to be thrown out of a window. We patiently wait like puppies for that pat on the head acknowledging our existence by elite bosses.
We toil away for hours on end for three paychecks knowing they still won't keep us warm, full, and housed. One of the other. But not all three. This was the situation in London during Karl Marx's time there. Children went hungry, barely clothed, and if they had a roof over their heads, they knew it could go away. Sound familiar! This is the hell we have become immune to it until it's us then we care. Our middle class has been gutted like a fish. Foreclosures and evictions are on the way. Since 'Mr. Moneybags' of our time has taken all of the quality full-time jobs that our fathers used to have. You know when one income could provide a comfortable life as long as dad maintained the budget and mom didn't overspend at the market.
Plus vacation, health care, and I mean full health care. When a young man got married he at least got a raise. Once a child was born he got another one (one per child) along with a promotion. Oh yeah, those jobs were the bomb. Now they are gone.
My overall assessment of the book is the information is as relevant today as when Mr. Karl Marx wrote it over a hundred years ago. Everything Mr. Marx wrote about while living in London is happening today. History does repeat itself. We have been reduced to the value of our labor. Just as it was then.
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