In this regard, Sayer advises that:

The distinctiveness [of bourgeois capitalism] lies as much in its organization of production. It is the continuous and rational employment of capital in a productive enterprise for the acquisition of profit, especially in industry which is characteristically modern. Bourgeois capitalism alone has produced a rational organization of labor, which nowhere previously existed.

Of course, not everyone has experienced the Horatio Alger "Ragged Dick" rags-to-riches story in the United States, but the fact remains that capitalism provides the opportunity for success in ways that are simply not made available in other economic systems, particularly those that are strictly controlled by the state. The pursuit of filthy lucre since the Industrial Revolution made it possible to do pursue wealth in the United States in even more efficient ways, and Marx and like-minded theorists maintain that this has created a lopsided system wherein capitalism must be regarded...
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