I read much of the thread and did searches on Marx and Smith. No hits.

Adam Smith disapproved of what he called joint stock companies. A joint stock company is what we now call a corporation. In 1886 the US Supreme Court decided that a corporation was a "person" and deserved similar rights. It was a case involving Santa Clara County and a railroad. Neither Marx nor Smith knew about a corporation being a PERSON. A corporation with tens of thousands of stock holders where no one owns as much as 1% isn't PRIVATE OWNERSHIP it is COLLECTIVE OWNERSHIP. Communism for the RICH!

I think the term CAPITALISM does not accurately apply to the system we have in the US and much of the world today. I think what I call CORPORATE CONSUMERISM was being phased in around 1900.

Freudian psychology didn't get started until after Marx's death. The 1st television commercial wasn't broadcast until 1941. How much psychological knowledge is put into commercials today to get consumers to overconsume?

We have obesity and tremendous credit card debt.

Adam Smith would not be impressed.

umbrarchist