The more the division of labor and the application of machinery extend, the more does competition extend among the workers, the more do their wages shrink together.

The capitalist mode of production and accumulation, and therefore capitalist private property, have for their fundamental condition the annihilation of self - earned private property: in other words, the expropriation of the labourer.

Machines were, it may be said, the weapon employed by the capitalists to quell the revolt of specialized labor.

He who before was the money owner, now strides in front as capitalist; the possessor of labor-power follows as his laborer. The one with an air of importance, smirking, intent on business; the other hesitant, like one who is bringing his own hide to market and has nothing to expect but a hiding.

The capitalist buys labour-power in order to use it; and labour-power in use is labour itself. The purchaser of labour-power consumes it by setting the seller of it to work.

In proportion as capital accumulates, the lot of the laborer, be his payment high or low, must grow worse.