Mark Moss argues that capitalism created the conditions for Marx to critique it. Born wealthy, Marx relied on charity while writing, able to devote himself to philosophy only because capitalism generated enough surplus wealth and leisure time to make that possible. The irony: capitalism enabled the very critique that attacked it.
Karl Marx, he talked about in the Communist Manifesto of how it was the capitalists, the people with the money, could run the factories. And the poor people, all they had was their labor. And if you look into Karl Marx's writing and background, he was so disgruntled because, you know, he came from a very wealthy family. He didn't want to go work. He just wanted to write philosophy, but he couldn't make any money doing that. And he was angry at the world. But the interesting thing is, is capitalism has made it where today you can make a lot of money just writing philosophy, right? Like, just creating content.
That's exactly the of it. In a previous age, Karl Marx wouldn't have had the time to read because he'd be working in a field and he'd be whipped if he didn't. You know, the only reason why Marx could attack capitalism is because capitalism afforded such a massive surplus that he was able to spend his entire life writing. And if he had aimed his art a tiny little bit more towards the market, then he could have actually kept his children alive instead of starving them to death while living off charity from his parents.
