Adam Smith/Karl Marx

Adam Smith is known to be the father of capitalism and for a lot of his life, he observed the ups and downs of the factory system. During his time, mercantilism, where it was keen to get as much gold traded as possible, was a dominant idea. Since he focused on this idea so much, he proposed quite a few ideas for the improvement the industry. 

He believed that labor should be divided among people so that it can be more efficient; he called this the Division of Labor. In further depth, he divided the people into three classes: landowners, people who have money, and those who have their own manpower. In this situation the laborers would work for the other classes. One major idea that Smith points out is that a country is not rich because they trade a lot, but it is rather important how much work is being done which proves that free trade is more successful than mercantilism. 

Karl Marx lived during the height of the Industrial Revolution. He is known for his new idea of "socialism." Many people looked at the Industrial Revolution from the perspective of the new ideas and machinery, but Marx looked at it from a worker's perspective. Unlike Smith, Marx had two classes in mind: a worker who sells his labor, and the capitalist who has money to buy it. The pattern he noticed in this system was the capitalist would pay his laborer the least amount he can, but then sell his products in the highest amount he can. Instead of being thankful to the new machines, Marx believes that the laborer becomes a slave to the machine because he is always trying to catch up to the speed of the machine. In conclusion, this leads the capitalist to become more and more wealthier while the laborers lives become miserable even after all the work they do.