Does communism work?

No.

Can we use Marx to make capitalism better?

Yes.

Forget the short and racy “Communist Manifesto”.

The 4-volume “Das Kapital” is the Marx book that really matters.

Capitalists should read it, or they risk being blindsided.

Marx talks about the working conditions for labor in early industrial Britain. It's horrifying.

The “relay system” keeps mills & factories going 24/7. 10 y.o. kids work 15 hours a day for a few shillings a week.

Children making phosphorous matches develop lockjaw.

A flax mill in Ireland sees 6 fatalities and over 60 mutilations because the owners can’t be bothered to put in cheap safety guards.

The bodies of miners, laborers and bakers are broken by the age of 40.

A 20-year-old milliner works 26 hours straight in an unventilated room to meet the owner’s orders at the height of the London ‘season’.

She collapses and dies.

It's more efficient to use up a worker for a few years, then discard them for new blood.

Giving the same worker better conditions + a longer working life just isn’t as profitable!

“Surplus labor value” is the secret sauce of capitalism.

Marx obsesses over the length of the working day. Why?

A portion of the day is “necessary” labor time. It pays for the worker’s subsistence, and for the owner’s costs of running the factory.

Profits only come in the LAST part of the day after all costs have been covered.

Marx: “the laborer… works one half of the day for himself, the other half for the capitalist.”

English manufacturers try to stop laws mandating a 10-hour day in place of 12 hours.

They have to. They're competing in the intense arena of international capitalism.

Marx: Capitalism is a monster which chews everyone up.

Even AFTER the Ten Hour Act passes in 1848, factory owners exploit loopholes to keep children working.

 Marx: “Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks”.