I'm not sure I understand this "alienation" thing. As near as I can tell, a complex economic system requires that I become seperated from the product of my labor. For example, I am (in real life) a management consultant. I help my clients design systems which help their employees produce products.
I usually never even get to see the final product I helped create.
My questions are two:
1) Why is this bad? It really doesn't bother *me* at all. Besides, many of the products are smelly chemicals anyway.
2) Even if this is bad, why blame Capitalism? Isn't the great distance between myself and the final products a result of Technology? Making chemicals, for example, is very complex. My client needs scientists, janitors, engineers, managers, plumbers, foremen, accountants, and truck drivers to do the job. This is because of Technology -- we would still need the same labor division if the workers owned the plant.
- nat
