Alienation in capitalist systems

Alienation is the fundamental contradiction in capitalism. It occurs primarily in the establishment of ownership and exchange value. These are basic alienations from necessity. The creation of an artificial non-productive elite follows, to whom all profits from artificially created demand accrue. As the capitalist system evolves, the alienation of the artificial class from the means of production, and therefore from the working class, increases and expands onto an international level in the form of economic imperialism or colonialism. In addition, the development of machinery increasingly alienates the worker from the act of producing and finally pushes him out of this role altogether, without reallocating to him any of the benefits of production that he formerly acquired.