Alienation is, however, far more than boredom at work. In traditional societies, it is argued, though work may have been hard and exhausting, the individual worker still had a large measure of control over his or her daily labours. In contrast, the modern industrial worker has little control over his or her work situation. Capitalism , according to Marx, inevitably produces a high level of alienation. This is because in such a society a small number of individuals own the productive forces, individual workers rarely own the tools of their trade and have little control over what they produce.
Production is for an abstract market rather than for self or for a specific customer.
Unlike the craftsmen of preindustrial societies, workers in industrial societies do not each produce a complete product. Rather, each may produce just one element of a fragmented whole. This may involve a routine task only and in this way many skills may be lost. It is argued that workers in capitalist societies not only become alienated from their work and the products of their labour, but also from themselves and ultimately from each other. An alienated worker, Marx believed, is unable to find self-expression through work and this causes estrangement from self.