Marx misunderstood the world economy and its rapid expansion when he called it “capitalism.”
The accumulation of capital was the consequence of the world’s economic expansion.
But it was not the cause.
Entrepreneurs and thinkers were the catalysts of the entire world’s economic improvement, not capitalist financiers.
World literacy spread, for instance, because of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. And there wasn’t much of a corporate conglomerate there to pool together wealth to bring his invention to the market.
That happened through Gutenberg’s own initiative.
And accordingly humanity was permanently enriched by the ability to conveniently access troves of information while Gutenberg himself died without much notoriety or great wealth. So much for capitalist exploitation.
Science, the discipline that later led to the development of engineering and accordingly laid the foundation for the industrial revolution, was also developed by enterprising risk takers.
Neither development happened because of greedy people trying to exploit the labor of others. Instead these developments happened because of their entrepreneurial spirit and sincere desire to pursue what they found interesting or right even if it meant incurring great personal risk and injury.
Clearly Marx then missed out on how the self-interested sacrifices of great entrepreneurs has enriched us all both materially and spiritually.
Materially through novel inventions that reduce the amount of time we have to spend on tedious tasks.
And spiritually through the entrepreneurs’ example.
Entrepreneurs remind us that if we persevere in diligently pursuing our self interests that we too can contribute to the great enrichment of the marketplace of life even if we don’t immediately profit. For the pursuit of eternal benefit is its own reward, one whose wages pay more than Marx’s material fixations.
Zigmund Reichenbach has an M.A. in Philosophy from West Chester University. You can support his work at https://ko-fi.com/zigmundreichenbach