Workers would possess only their own labor, which they would be forced to exchange for a miserable wage. Nonetheless, they would be more fortunate than the “reserve army of the unemployed” – a pool of idle labor large enough to make others fear losing their job, but small enough not to waste the surplus value that could be extracted by making them work.
因此，生产方式将不再像家庭农场或手工作坊那样由做工作的人所有，而是由“资本”所有。工人只拥有自身的劳动，并被迫用劳动换取可怜的工资。尽管如此，他们仍将比“失业的后备军”更加富有。由闲置劳动力组成的“失业的后备军”规模足够大，足以让他们害怕失去工作；又足够小，不会浪费让他们工作所能榨取的剩余价值。