... as capital, allowing them to exploit the proletariat by paying them the "minimum wage" barely sufficient enough to keep them in "bare existence as a laborer" (216). In other words, owning the means of production allows the bourgeoisie to abuse and exploit the proletariat. Under capitalism, the proletariat is exploited, but at the same time, freedom is exclusively in the hands of the bourgeoisie. They are able to legitimize their wealthy positions by teaching the proletariat that they are a part of the same concept of freedom; that is, the freedom to compete in "free trade, free selling and buying" (217). How, then, is the working class free when they own none of the means of production? "Capital is...a social power" and because wage laborers are exploited, they have no capital, and since they have no capital, they have no way to participate in the "free trade, free selling and ...

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