It is a common myth within capitalist thought that the individual through drive and hard work can become a capitalist. In the USA, it is usual to refer to an individual like John D. Rockefeller as someone who rose from “Rags to riches”. To complete the moral of the Rockefeller success story it would be necessary to fill in the details on all the millions of people who had to be exploited in order for one man to become a multi millionaire.
The acquisition of wealth is not due to hard work alone, or the Africans working as slaves in America and the West Indies would have been the wealthiest group in the world.
The individualism of the capitalist must be seen against the hard and unrewarded work of the masses.
(via epistephilia)
