BERTRAND RUSSELL ON CAPITALISM IN 1920

Russell is mostly known for his work in mathematics and philosophy but he was also active in politics.  He wrote Practice & Theory of Bolshevism in 1920 and gave us a clear-sighted view of the many shortcomings of Bolshevik ideology.   He also noted a serious problem with the capitalism of his day:

The graver evils of the capitalist system all arise from its uneven distribution of power. The possessors of capital wield an influence quite out of proportion to their numbers or their services to the community. They control almost the whole of education and the press; they decide what the average man shall know or not know; the cinema has given them a new method of propaganda, by which they enlist the support of those who are too frivolous even for illustrated papers. Very little of the intelligence of the world is really free: most of it is, directly or indirectly, in the pay of business enterprises or wealthy philanthropists. To satisfy capitalist interests, men are compelled to work much harder and more monotonously than they ought to work, and their education is scamped....It is this sacrifice of the individual to the machine that is the fundamental evil of the modern world.