Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.

Summary

This quote, attributed to Karl Marx, suggests that capital, referring to material wealth, is essentially the accumulated labor of the past. It describes it as "dead labor" because it is no longer active or productive on its own. Instead, capital, like a vampire, relies on the exploitation and extraction of the labor of living individuals in order to maintain and increase its value. The more labor it exploits, the more it thrives. In essence, it highlights the exploitative nature of the capitalist system, where wealth is created and accumulated through the labor of others.

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