> We've been failing to acknowledge that ever since, since it's considered classist/elitist to point out the problem.
That's what Marx was actually wishing for, i.e. more intensive work done by the machines equaling more free time for the laborers, who would use it to improve themselves etc.
Of course, he was aware of the fact that were the machines to be owned by a select few (the "capitalists") then the profits would go mostly their way, this is why he said that the "means of production" should be owned by the workers.
That's what Marx was actually wishing for, i.e. more intensive work done by the machines equaling more free time for the laborers, who would use it to improve themselves etc.
Of course, he was aware of the fact that were the machines to be owned by a select few (the "capitalists") then the profits would go mostly their way, this is why he said that the "means of production" should be owned by the workers.