THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAPITALISTIC SOCIAL ORDER

the world are heaped up; on the other side, that of the oppressed classes, is an accumulation of misery, bitterness, and tears. The industrial reserve army gives birth to a stratum of debased and brutalised individuals, crushed to the earth by extreme poverty. But even those who remain at work are sharply distinguished from the capitalists by their manner of life. The differentiation of the proletariat from the bourgeoisie continually increases. Formerly there was quite a number of lesser capitalists, many of whom had close relationships with the workers and lived little better than these. Things are very different to-day. The lords of capital live in a manner of which no one dreamed in earlier days. It is true that the workers’ standard of life has improved in the course of capitalist development. Down to the beginning of the twentieth century, there occurred a general rise in wages. But during this same period, capitalist profits increased still more rapidly. To-day there is a great gulf fixed between the toiling masses and the capitalist class. The capitalist now leads an entirely different sort of life; he himself produces nothing. The more capitalism develops, the more exalted becomes the position of the small group of extremely wealthy