ABSTRACT
The ancient class process is another name for productive self-employment, where the adjective productive refers to the production and self-appropriation of a surplus. Self-employment has held an almost mythic status in the history of the US and many other parts of the world. Karl Marx wrote that the struggle against social injustice could not be successful without an understanding of exploitation, and in particular of the capitalist exploitation that was dominant in England and other industrialized European nations at the time of his writings. The existence of self-exploitation presumes certain social and natural conditions. Marx often used teleological language to describe the presence of anti-conditions of the existence of capitalist exploitation, often referring to such conditions as "pre-capitalist". In research on developing countries and those that have gone through "post-Communist" transition, there is a growing consensus that self-employment has been a critical component in the maintenance of the modern economy by actually enhancing capitalist accumulation through linkages with capitalist firms.
