ment elsewhere. While this does not eliminate the possibility of conditions existing across all industries, which are objectionable, it does mean the worker has more power than Marx allowed him or her. As a matter of fact, contrary to Marx, those industries, which are doing the best economically, are usually those with the highest paid employees. 3) Marx assumed that the only way for the capitalists to increase their markets was through imperialism. While this is the way many capitalists preceded in the late 19th century, it ignores another alternative. An economy with well-paid workers creates a potential market for its goods amongst its workers. While this may reduce profit margins in the immediate, it provides a reliable and sustainable market for the future with a workforce eager to work for the ability to consume again. Indeed, as of late, many of these workers possess stock in their employer's company or in some other investment fund, making them part owners of the company. This kind separation between ownership and control defies Marx's analysis. Marx's contention that capital is social is interesting, though does not secure his conclusion. Capital is indeed social in that it relies on a complex nexus of social conventions. If this is all that Marx is saying, though, it does not seem as if the capitalist need in any way object. In reality, Marx seems to be taking issue with the idea that private property is antecedent to society and that society in protecting the right to contract is protecting a pre-social right. While Marx may be correct in criticizing this Lockean view, this does not mean that the social character of capital brings it any closer to full socialization than in the Lockean view. The right to possess property may be an expressly social right, an extension of each individual's right to determine his own destiny within his social world. Now the Marxist will have much to say to this, but for the present, it suffices ...
