Small Element, Big Difference: A comparison of Adam Smith and Karl Marx's view on labor in a capitalist society.
Adam Smith and Karl Marx are both considered few of the most influential giants in social and economical history. When viewing their economical standpoints, it is not difficult to recognize the difference in ideas that they have regarding society. Adam Smith is an advocator for capitalism and the wealth that can be accumulated in it, while Karl Marx critiques on the flaws of capitalism and praises communism that will overthrow the capitalist society. However, both of them base their theories on the characteristic of labor. Even though Marx and Smith both point to the significance of one's labor in a capitalist society, Smith views labor as having the potential, in conjunction with the division of labor, to stimulate the public wealth and encourage the growth of an ultimately unregulated opulent commercial society. Marx, while starting at a conceptually similar point, observes that in a capitalist system people cannot acquire the wealth produced by their labor due to the alienation between the laborer and his/her means of production. The result of this alienation is exponential division of wealth between the rich bourgeois and the deprived proletariat, leading to revolution in the capitalist economy.
Although ownership of one's own labor is a key element in both Smith and Marx's theories, they have subtle dissimilarities, leading to substantial opposing conclusions about a capitalist society. In a capitalist society, while Smith views labor as the most sanctified property in the laborers disposal to achieve the goals of self-interest, Marx states that with two classes in society, labor is not truly "free" to use since the laborer is forced to work for the capitalist owner in order to survive. This is because of the alienation between the laborer and his means of production. As Marx states, " If the product of work is externalization, production itself must be active externalization" If the worker is alienated from the product, then the worker is alienated from
Although ownership of one's own labor is a key element in both Smith and Marx's theories, they have subtle dissimilarities, leading to substantial opposing conclusions about a capitalist society. In a capitalist society, while Smith views labor as the most sanctified property in the laborers disposal to achieve the goals of self-interest, Marx states that with two classes in society, labor is not truly "free" to use since the laborer is forced to work for the capitalist owner in order to survive. This is because of the alienation between the laborer and his means of production. As Marx states, " If the product of work is externalization, production itself must be active externalization" If the worker is alienated from the product, then the worker is alienated from