Marxism was a response to the Industrial Revolution. Before factories and mass production, people lived more simply, usually on farms. They did not own a lot because most of what they had they made themselves. For example, clothing began with cotton or wool, which was spun into thread, woven into fabric, then cut and sewn into garments, sheets, table coverings, towels, etc. Food was grown, picked, and preserved. Just to live required much more effort than it does now, but people took pride in their work and the useful things they made.
             However, as Marx pointed out, we no longer can take pride in the products of our labor. Factory workers are separated from what they produce. For example, if a woman's job involves making coats, she is responsible for only one part of the coat, perhaps a pocket or a seam, but the finished product-the coat itself-she did not make. Assembly lines in factories brought only one small part of the product to the worker who was forced to stand for hours on end doing a dull, repetitive, seemingly meaningless task over and over again. A man in the auto factory might be responsible for tightening down two bolts all day long. The connection to the product of his labor was completely lost as well as to the things he owned. Work strictly for pay and someone else's benefit resulted in alienation, boredom, and loss of meaning.
             The American Heritage Dictionary (online) describes alienation as estrangement, emotional isolation, and dissociation. Marx's sense of alienation sees human beings as emotionally isolated from their work because of capitalism. Factory owners are concerned only with workers producing as much as possible-and making as much profit as possible-not with the worker's feelings of satisfaction. They couldn't care less if the workers feel alienated from the product and emotionally isolated. Marx argued that socialism would remedy alienation because workers ...