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Proponents of Karl Marx argue that he was perhaps the greatest scholar of the Capitalistic economic system. Opponents, many free market Capitalists themselves, scoff at this notion and consider him a misguided and frustrated thinker, resentful of a world that rewards individual effort. Both camps miss one important point, the difference between observation of reality and theorizing upon the ideal.

Marx spent his lifetime writing about an economic system that existed in the real world. Unlike other political theorists of the time, he wasted little effort on extrapolation of the ideal. The proof of this is the often repeated criticism that Marx never really explained how this "new society" that he proposed would ever really work. This is an extremely valid point: Marx's theories stopped abruptly short of any actual description of this new and better [by his accounts] world. But, this is consistent with Marx's study of what really existed as opposed to economists such as Adam Smith who gave excellent examples of what existed and then created vast theories based on the examples.

Smith's "pin factory" and his explanation of the "division of labor" is a great example. Out of the factory production of pins, Smith created a new economic premise that he believed revolutionized economic life as we knew it previously. We would soon experience "abundance" and prosperity as never before. And of course, in theory, he was correct, especially when contemplating the evolution from a strictly controlled "Mercantilism" of the time to this new system that seem to have the possibility of freeing humans from centuries of enslavement to providing for their sustenance.

Marx instead concentrated on the reality of the "shift" in power. The masses he thought, had not been freed but the "ownership" of their labor had simply been transferred. Kings and nobles had become industrialists and Capitalists. Marx it should be mentioned, had the insurmountable advantage of studying Smith, while Smith had no such advantage. His study had been put aside and he was resting peacefully!

One of Marx's most contested axioms is that of the "theory of surplus labor value". Marx contended that all "surplus" value or profit if you will, was created by labor during the labor process. His example of the worker working part of the day to feed himself and the rest to provide profit and eventually the production of capital to the Capitalist. Fundamentally, all value was created by labor, while the distribution of

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