I love jokes-- as a way of showing how ridiculous something like capitalism really is.

Capitalism is a historically specific type of political/ social/ economic system, although many people in our society assume it is a natural way to organize societies and human relationships.

The two basic, oppositional classes in this type of system, according to Marx, are the capitalist class and the working class.

--> The capitalists, despite their small numbers, own the vast majority of land and the means of production.

--> Most people fall under the category of the working class. They own nothing or very little besides their own laboring abilities and time. Most of their lives is spent working for capitalists-- that is, selling their time and labor power away for others, creating the profits for capitalists to enjoy.

This whole process is incredibly problematic for Marx. Marx sees the human capacity to labor, to create, and to produce as a beautiful thing. The thing that makes us human is our potential to create stuff by interacting with our environment and with each other. Under capitalism, we are not connected to our work in a fulfilling way. We are not the creators in the artistic sense. Historically, workers could not even afford or use what they produced for capitalists. Most of our waking hours, then, is spent producing goods (or parts of goods, or information) for others. This is sad for Marx. He called it alienation. Instead of fulfilling our very humanity, most workers are disconnected from their labor. They are also alienated from each other, because other workers are effectively our competitors in this kind of system.

We are often told we can be anything we want to be. The beauty of this system relies on this fairy-tale image of doing what you love or what you are good at--- what do you want to be when you grow up?

Actually, for critics of capitalism, those in the majority (without capital or ownership) have little choice or a much different kind of choice than what the fairy tale suggests. How do you want to sell your labor power?