Marx View on Capitalism
1b. Summarize Marx’s views on the market, alienation, the labor theory of value, the surplus value, and the accumulation of capital. Are these views relevant in the 20th century and during the contemporary globalization? If so, how? How are these views related with Thorstein Veblens ideas? Please give specific reference to the relevant readings.
Theory of Alienation--his analysis of how people are bound to become estranged from themselves and each other under the conditions of capitalist industrial production (Hooker). This Theory of Alienation is often considered the philosophical underpinning for his later more technical critique of capitalism as an economic system (Bramann).
Marx developed his theory of alienation to reveal the human activity that lies behind the seemingly impersonal forces dominating society. He showed how, although aspects of the society we live in appear natural and independent of us, they are the results of past human actions (Bramann). Marx showed not only that human action in the past created the modern world, but also that human action could shape a future world free from capitalism. Marx understood alienation as something rooted in the material world. Alienation meant loss of control, specifically the loss of control over labour (wikipedia).
Marx begins his analysis of alienated labour by noting what happens to workers under capitalism. As the worker creates wealth, this wealth is created for the capitalist and not for the worker or direct producer, and the condition of the worker deteriorates. The worker produces commodities, out of these commodities capital is created, and capital comes to dominate the worker. The worker him or her self becomes devalued (worth less – lower wages) as a result. In his 1844 writing “The worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extent. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces ... the object that labour
Theory of Alienation--his analysis of how people are bound to become estranged from themselves and each other under the conditions of capitalist industrial production (Hooker). This Theory of Alienation is often considered the philosophical underpinning for his later more technical critique of capitalism as an economic system (Bramann).
Marx developed his theory of alienation to reveal the human activity that lies behind the seemingly impersonal forces dominating society. He showed how, although aspects of the society we live in appear natural and independent of us, they are the results of past human actions (Bramann). Marx showed not only that human action in the past created the modern world, but also that human action could shape a future world free from capitalism. Marx understood alienation as something rooted in the material world. Alienation meant loss of control, specifically the loss of control over labour (wikipedia).
Marx begins his analysis of alienated labour by noting what happens to workers under capitalism. As the worker creates wealth, this wealth is created for the capitalist and not for the worker or direct producer, and the condition of the worker deteriorates. The worker produces commodities, out of these commodities capital is created, and capital comes to dominate the worker. The worker him or her self becomes devalued (worth less – lower wages) as a result. In his 1844 writing “The worker becomes poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and extent. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he produces ... the object that labour