MONEY AND THE STYLE OF MODERN LIFE 241
ON
eS
2L-
ile
.n-
is
31-
1c
~t
at-
th-
p-
nd
wn
NR -
ive
In
is
ul-
ul-
15
le,
he
ral
ul-
ral
yb-
1ot
ire
"1
in the first place to the division of labor. It separates the
laborer from his product. He makes only a part of an ob-
ject, which, as such, has no meaning. It allows no self-
expression and does not react back on the individual. His
product is a fragment of an economic good, but not a cul-
tural element; his production is an economic function, but
not the creation of a cultural value. He becomes divorced
from his product. In the field of consumption something
similar occurs through the standardization of consumption
goods. The cultural contents appear more and more as the
embodiment of an objective spirit which faces as something
external not only those who consume them, but also those
who produce them. The immediate intimate reciprocity
has disappeared, and so the personal culture can lag be-
hind the objective culture.
In certain fields of cultural life the opposite tendency
is manifest. That discrepancy is visible in social institu-
tions which develop only slowly and gradually and there-
by lag behind the development of individuals. These cases
are summarized in the following formula: The forms of
production are overtaken by the forces of production which
they develop themselves, and therefore no longer allow an
adequate expression and functioning of these forces. The
latter are largely of an individual character. What people
are capable of producing and can rightfully demand can
no longer be realized by the existing forms of technique.
The transformation will follow only after these forces have
amassed a sufficient energy to break through the inertia
of the old forms; until that moment, the factual organiza-
tion of production lags behind the development of the in-
dividual economic energies.
But these discrepancies are made possible by the divi-
sion of labor and therefore, in the last analysis, by the
money economy. Money makes possible a complete divi-
