Center for Economic and Social Justice powers and profits of land and productive assets became concentrated within a tiny elite of private owners. To remedy the abuses of concentrated capital ownership, Marx and Engels in "The Communist Manifesto" (1848) declared, “[T]he theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: the abolition of private property.” In contrast, Kelso turned the socialist's central assumption around by asserting that private property, far from being the problem, is essential for creating a truly just free market global economy. An economically just economy is one in which every citizen can be a capital owner without taking property
Social and economic stratification in Appalachia allowing workers to become indebted to plantation stores, live in company housing, and generally make themselves vulnerable to the interests of their powerful employers. Community members who experienced a justifiable fear of punishment for speaking out against the corruption of the status quo developed a habit of compliance rather than democratic institutions for social change. Fearful of punishment, middle class residents allied themselves with the elites rather than challenging the system that colored their everyday lives. Burdened by the choice between exile and exploitation, the actual and potential middle class left the region, widening the gap between the poor and