" (I.1.3) Smith focuses not on the laborer, but on the maker of pins. In fact, the maker of pins, seamlessly becomes the owner of a pin-making factory, even though this would not necessarily be the case under industrialism -- in fact, what had become a specialized trade was now performed in a series of parts by many workers. But in Smith's view, the consumer profits by the lower price of pins and the greater availability of the commodities, while the factory owner profits by the increased supply of goods to sell, and thus can lessen the price in a competitive market. Freedom and division of workers, Smith believed, in a spirit of self-interest, produced positive results. In contrast, Marx wrote with horror about how workers were alienated from their means of production. In other words, for the enrichment of the factory-owner, the worker rented out his or her body, and was forced to produce far more pins than he or she could ever conceivably require. Marx delineates in Chapter 7, Volume 1 of Capital, an extended example by which the spinning labor of a worker confers value upon thread, turning it into cloth. The factory owner does nothing, the capitalist experiences no wear or tear upon his or her body, but simply owning the factory. The capitalist profit more through the ownership of the factory and the means of production than the laborer does by toiling all day, and providing his or her functionality as an implement.

Adam Smith, however, believed that wage labor would always be valued fairly, according to the invisible...

In other words, if government simply leaves the capitalist 'alone' to do his or her bidding, in a competitive marketplace, laborers will invariably seek out the place where they will receive the best price for their commodity, labor, just as sellers seek out the best marketplace to sell their goods, where they can gain the greatest profit. This presupposes a competitive marketplace, of course, for both products and wages, without monopolies, which even Smith defamed as antithetical to the freedom of the capitalist spirit. However, in Marx's view, no matter how competitive the marketplace the worker will never be recompensed fairly for his or her greater efforts.
Communism and Marxism points out important negative aspects of the capitalist system merely glossed over by Adam Smith. However, the solution of common ownership and the elimination of competition proved problematic in its implementation. The distrust of the excesses of the market may have been well founded, but the idea of communal ownership to help the ignored laborer of Smith's capitalist manifesto proved no solution, and limited human freedom even more.

Works Cited

Marx, Karl. Capital. Originally published 1867. Translated by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling -- edited by Frederick Engels

Marx, Karl & Frederik Engles. The Communist Manifesto. 1848

Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations. Originally published 1776. London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., ed. Edwin Cannan, 1904. Fifth edition.