Although a relatively small number succeed in passing from another class to that of the bourgeoisie, this does not prevent nearly all from having an ardent desire to enrich themselves and from seizing every opportunity which may help them attain this end. (The only exception is found in those workers who understand that the historic task of the working class is to found a society where there shall be neither rich nor poor.) A man will often start a factory or a shop without having either capital or ability, in the hope of raising himself in the social scale; and unless the circumstances are extraordinarily favorable failure follows almost immediately. This applies also quite as strongly to the capitalists who for one reason or another have failed in business; they try to gain success in another branch at any cost, even if capital and ability are lacking. But such a course can only retard their fall, and they end infallibly by sinking permanently to the rank of the proletarian. What I have just been saying brings out strongly the character of the present process of production. Production is not undertaken for the sake of consumption, but for profit, so that the man who believes that he has a good chance to improve his condition goes to work to produce, without asking himself whether there is need of his products, or whether he can meet the required conditions. As to the relation of the bourgeoisie, as a class, to other classes, and especially to the proletariat, a few words will suffice after the exposition I have given of present economic conditions. “In every nation there are two nations.” These words describe the relations in question. From their mode of life the bourgeoisie and the proletariat remain strangers to one another. [270] The bourgeoisie, having arrived at a wrong idea of the present system, do not consider the proletariat as the class which sustains society by its toil, but as a necessary evil. According to the bourgeois every strike is a diminution of his rights, an encroachment upon his property. In the political field the bourgeoisie, notwithstanding its intrinsic divisions, acts as a unit against the proletarians; a fact which does not prevent there being opposing interests within the class: in the first place the contest of the different groups of capitalists (manufacturers against agrarians, etc.) and then the opposing interests of the manufacturers within each group. B. THE PETTY BOURGEOISIE. In reality the line of demarcation between the bourgeoisie and the petty bourgeoisie is not drawn with the precision desirable for a theoretical exposition. Just as there are numerous gradations in the bourgeoisie, so are there in the petty bourgeoisie.