'Absque labore nihil' is the motto of Stalybridge and it's very true.

 

Adam Smith

Unless you've got your head up your arse, most of us know that you don't get rich working for somebody else. Adam Smith the father of classical economics would tell you that the source of wealth in any society is people's labour.

Karl Marx outlined a theory of exploitation based on the theft of labour time. When you work for somebody else, only part of your working hours covers the wages that you get paid. This is necessary labour time. The rest of the time is surplus labour time and this is how the boss makes a profit. He extracts surplus value. 

The art of making yourself rich involves keeping your neighbour poor. It also involves a moral or legal claim upon, or power over, the labour of others. This is what we call capitalism or the ownership of the means of production in private hands. The art of accumulating money is the art of establishing the maximum inequality in our own favour.

As the neo-classical economist Leon Walras said, you can't defend capitalism on the grounds that it's natural; the only justification for it, is that it's efficient and it generates wealth. Historically, English workers resisted being turned into proletarians and factory hands and didn't care much for working for a wage.