Karl Marx: Buy & Possess Omnipotence
on Monday, September 11, 2017Karl Marx Money Quote saying having property and money bestows universal power upon its owner because it allows them to have whatever they are able to buy. Karl Marx said:
“By possessing the property of buying everything, by possessing the property of appropriating all objects, money is thus the object of eminent possession. The universality of its property is the omnipotence of its being. It is therefore regarded as an omnipotent being” — Karl Marx
Share the Karl Marx Money quote image above on your site:
Short Link to this Quote:
In this quote, Karl Marx is characterizing money and the power it holds within a capitalist system. He argues that through its ability to purchase all goods and services, money essentially possesses a “universal property” that makes it all-powerful or “omnipotent”.
By having the quality of being able to “appropriate all objects” through market exchanges, Marx views money as taking on the attributes of an “eminent possession” or supremely valued asset.
He suggests money’s power comes from its function as a universal medium of exchange that can acquire any commodity, giving it an almost god-like “omnipotence of being” and making it the primary object of reverence within capitalism.
Overall, Marx is critiquing the outsized importance, control and worship afforded to money as the driving force of the economic system according to his analysis.
Birthday: May 5, 1818 – Death: March 14, 1883