Karl Marx and Capitalism Essay Example

Karl Marx was a German philosopher born in 1818. (“Marx, Karl (1818-1883)”, 2006) He is widely regarded as one of the influential social thinkers of all time and his critiques on capitalism are still argued and accepted today. Marx lived through the rise of the industrial revolution and witness the beginnings of capitalism. From its inception, Marx strongly opposed the basic structure of capitalism and its method of wealth distribution. A clear divide was being formed within capitalism through the formation of two social classes: the bourgeoisie, the upper class, those who owned the means of production; and the proletarian, the working class, the labourers, who could only sell their labour. Through his critique of capitalism, Marx conceived one of his most popular theories, the theory of alienation. He first present this theory in 1844 in Economic and Philosophic Manuscript, while living in Paris. These works were not found and published until 1932. (“Marx, Karl (1818-1883)”, 2006) Here Marx argues that under the capitalistic system, labourers were so removed from the means of production they being to lose their human essence. Labour, which once defined their species-being, is now alienating them from the world they live. Marx believed that “creativity is essential to being human.” (“Alienation”, 2006) Before the industrial revolution, people were living to their full potential. They had freedom over the products they made and control over the process of production. This allowed them to express their individuality through objects and feel connected to their natural world. The rise of capitalism forced people to leave the villages and into inorganic habitats. Here, they no longer worked for self-expression but under the bourgeoisie. Having no authority over the objects they produced, labourers began to detach from their potential and alienate from life. 

Political economy is associated with liberalism and the labour theory of value; human labour creates value. Although Marx agrees with these ideologies, where he departs from political economy is on the idea of possessive individualism. (Crocker, 2021) This means that individuals have ownership over their own personal interests, especially when it comes to their labour. Political economy believes an individual sells their labour to obtain freedom. Where Marx believes that this is not the case and people are forced to sell their labour in order to exist. The political economy system may seem fair on the surface. However, further investigation reveals that in order for an economy to generate capital for one group, the other group must be in a position of inequality and alienation. For capital to develop there needs to be a separation between labour and capital. (McIntosh, 1997) The working class has to sell their labour in order to fulfil their basic needs while the upper class uses this labour to increase their capital. The longer this cycle continues the more ingrained it becomes in our collective consciousness and the more impossible it feels to break the cycle. The longer a labourer sells their values, the more removed from human reality they become. The political economy then keeps the private property in the hands of the owners and leaves the labourers to be dominated by the objectification of the product they produce. The working class creates so many products, the objects start to feel alien. Their once meaningful labour is now externalized labour, void of human essence. Human labour is the only commodity that creates more value. The more an object is worked on by a human, the more value it possesses, the more capital it creates. Therefore, those that own the means of production dominate those selling their labour by keeping them in this position. The only way to do that is to alienate them through labour. (McIntosh, 1997)

Marx said that all species are defined by the activities they perform. (McIntosh, 1997) Animals have set characteristics, for example, all beavers build damns and all monarch butterflies migrate south each fall. Humans, on the other hand, do not have a universal set of characteristics - we do not all eat the somethings, wear the same clothes, and live in the same area. The on quality humans can be characterized by, according to Marx, is about labouring capacity. (Crocker, 2021) Humans have the ability to be connected to and see themselves in the objects they labour over. This quality is very threatening to capitalism, which relies on human labour to produce capital. Therefore, alienation is the goal. Once the labour feels like a foreign, external object that confronts the worker rather than supports, the worker can be dominated by the wealth they are producing. 

Before the rise of capitalism and the class divide, people would define themselves by their occupation. It was more than just a job, it was an extension of their human essence. A woodworker, before the industrial revolution, was probably the best woodworker in the village and therefore, was the only one. They were in charge of every decision related to their woodworking - products, techniques, materials, and pricing. They owned their labour and every piece was a reflection of themself. All the villages also had their own woodworkers with the same dedication and passion. The industrial revolution caused people to leave their homes and come to cities to find work. This mentality of owning your labour was replaced and with labour alienation. Marx argued there are four ways in which a worker could be alienated. The first is alienation from the product. (“Alienation”, 2006) The means of production is controlled solely by the factory owners and the labourers are each only responsible for one small part of the product. They are totally removed from the private property. When the woodworker, from the previous example, was forced to move into the city. He has an employable skill and was therefore hired by a furniture-making factory. Here his job was to attach the legs onto the chairs. He went from making every single decision about his products to having no control over the final product. The second is alienation from the productive activity. (“Alienation”, 2006) Having no input on the final product, only a specialized job handling one piece of the puzzle, the work starts to feel removed from oneself. It slowly turns into a senseless, external activity. The woodworker went from dominating his objects to being dominated by his labour. The third form is alienation from species-being. (“Alienation”, 2006) Creativity is no longer being expressed through labour removing the woodworker’s ability to feel human. The endless monotony of his daily labour takes an activity that once felt like an expression of self and turns it into an alien feeling. The final is alienation from man to man. (“Alienation”, 2006) Capitalism breeds competition. Those in the same standing in life are always looking for a way to rise above the others. When people started flooding the cities in search of livelihood, they went from being at the top of their field to just another labourer. The furniture-making factory is full of other woodworkers from across the countryside. Not accustomed to their new social class, instant competition is created between them. Instead of pooling their knowledge and experience together for the greater good, they alienate themselves and are pitted against each other for survival. 

Capitalism only works when one group is dominating the other. The best way to do this is through wages. The labourers are paid just enough to get by but not enough to accumulate any capital and change their social class. In this system, labour is a commodity sold by the working class in units of time. Human labour is a source of value but the workers’ wage does not reflect the value of the product they create. Once the labourer works enough hours to cover the cost of their wages, the additional hours produce surplus value for the owner. Accumulates labour is created by surplus value and then use to create capital. (Crocker, 2021) According to Marx, wage labour supported alienation because is it forced labour. The working class are alienated from private property, their species-being, and the people surrounding them all in order to receive a wage. Wage labour leaves the labourer feeling alienated, they only feel human when engaging in animal activities - eating, sleeping, and procreating. Wage labour “alienated from his own body, nature exterior of himself, and intellectual being, his human essence.” (McIntosh, 1997)

The harder a labourer works, the more value they produce, surplus value is extracted and generates more capital for the owner. The capital beings to grow like an extraterrestrial life force, the bigger this foreign object grows, the less control the labourer has over it. Eventually, it gets so large that the labourer has no connection to the thing they helped produced. They are so alienated from their labour, the product, their co-workers, and even themselves that they are robbed of their human essence. What was once an internal piece of human existence, labour has now become an external objectification the labourer sees no reflection of self in.