Abstract

Karl Marx was a fierce critic of early capitalist market relations.2 His characterization of these relations, as they were forming in the nineteenth century when he observed them or as they have matured in subsequent centuries, strikes many people as inaccurate. But few doubt that an economy that resembled his description of early capitalism would be unjust.3 In that economy, some people are born into extreme poverty and never have a chance to experience a life of decent quality. These proletarians through no fault or choice of their own have no lucrative marketable skills and in order to stay alive must work long hours at brutally hard and unrewarding jobs for bare subsistence pay..