Through their work the Crossroads team came to believe that:

The true causes of illiteracy had to be understood, and this reality had to be viewed from the much larger context of poverty and exploitation 21

Let us now turn to an examination of this larger context, the capitalist economic structure, as it is conceived of by adherents of the critical perspective.

Economic Structure

Relying on what is essentially a Marxist analysis, adherents of the critical perspective locate the source of the maldistribution of wealth and power in a capitalist society like Canada in the economic structure through which the production of goods and services is carried on. Freire explains its nature:

In a capitalist perspective the various factors in production--means of production on the one hand, workers on the other--combine in the service of capital. Part of the accumulated profits, which are not paid to the worker who 'sells his labor to the capitalist, are used to buy more labor and more means of production which, together, produce more goods to be sold. The capitalist is interested in the production of goods--not, however, in terms of their usefulness but rather in their value as means of exchange, that is, goods that can be sold. What is more, he seeks to produce "goods whose value covers and surpasses the sum of the values of his investment in production--the means of production and the labor." (Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1) What workers receive as salary for their effort expended in the act of production corresponds only minimally to their effort. What is available for their living is also minimal and, therefore, the wage-earner class reproduces itself 22

Here Freire presents a simplified account of Marx's analysis of the basic dynamics of the capitalist economic structure. The working class (those who exist by selling their "labour power", i.e. their capacity to do useful work) never receive the full fruits of their labour. In the course of a given day, they produce a quantity of products for sale on the market ("commodities") with a total value that exceeds the sum of their wages and all other costs of production. The extra, or "surplus", value is claimed by capitalists (the owners of the means by which production is carried on, e.g. factory, land, raw materials, machinery) as their profit. They retain part of their profits for their own (luxurious) consumption needs, and re-invest the remainder in additional plant, equipment and labour power to continue the process on an ever-expanding scale (Marx termed this "accumulation"). Their overall wealth and power increases proportionately.

However, this surplus value, which maintains capitalists in their privileged class position, represents nothing other than a part of the daily product of workers which they are obliged to supply to their employers without compensation. (Marx terms this economic relationship "exploitation".) Moreover, the part of their product which is returned to workers in the form of wages is little more than what is required by most workers to subsist from payday to payday. Therefore, through their daily labour, the working class "reproduce" the material basis of the capitalist class, and thereby, the basis of their own subordinate class position.