• Describe the concepts of capital and globalization presented in the introductory essay. Karl Marx is describing capital as a social order based on the class of people (Longhofer).
As he is describing capital I get the feeling that it is not just about the way people classify each other, but how we also classify ourselves. When he is tying capital into globalization he mentions that we are expanding the capital and therefore creating an overdrive of our growth world (Longhofer). I still cannot fathom how Marx could have predicted the way we would grow as a society and yet he is so right with everything he predicted. When Marx was speaking about how we would grow I first began to wonder how he could have even thought to think outside of the proverbial box and yet the way he talks about the capital of people tying in with the globalization of the world is mind blowing. He mentions that globalization has been happening for a long time, but how could he have even thought that things would grow as fast as they have from back then? If he could only see the growth that the world has made he would be shocked at how 'right on point' he was.
• As they are presented in the introductory essay, do you think Marx’s works are intended to be theoretical interpretations of communism, or was Karl Marx primarily focused on, and an expert in, the workings of capitalism?
The way I think Marx is describing his views I think he was more geared toward the working of capitalism not the
Karl Marx believes that a capitalistic society separates the rich from the poor. corporations that holds the money hold the power to dictate whether certain fucntions of society.
Marx thought of capitalism in a pessimistic way, he saw the relationship between the employee and employer in a capitalistic society as toxic. To Marx, in a capitalistic society the employee would always be at a constant struggle for power be never endlessly repressed by the bourgeoisie. The employer would pay employees only what they needed to survive making it impossible to move up in class or society. He also recognized that in capitalism everything becomes corporatized. Things like marriage go from a sacred bond between two individuals that once never included money or the government, to something that is regulated by the national government and must be done through the federal court and include ties between the individual's financial status. Small businesses would also become corporatized, a local family doctor has now become part of a larger practice that brings in complex forms of payment such as insurance instead of simply paying a small family doctor directly. He also goes into the downfall of capitalism. The way capitalism works is through a series of economic highs and lows, each high is marked by prosperous times, high employment rate, and overall happiness. But the lows are marked by deterioration of the national economy, low employment rates, and struggle for all classes. To Marx’s these highs and lows are what's killing capitalism with each low being worse than the last until the people revolt and create a new form of government. The next would be socialism and once this fell like capitalism, the new governing system would be communism. Communism is an ideal system where people are never struggling for money and are paid based on their needs rather than their particular job. Through this system a
“to a mere money relation,” (Marx and Engels [1848] 2013:35]. Marx, saw the tear down of the old as the only way for the bourgeoisie to survive. Periodically, a crisis occurred where productive forces threatened their conditions and bourgeoisie would have to bring in new productive forces and destroy the old. Marx believed that these changes to technology and productive capacity were the main influence on how society and the economy were organized. The bourgeoisie had to push for the modern world to quickly and continually develop to protect capitalists’ monopolies. However, constant development caused continual disturbances of social conditions by breaking down stable aspects of human life. Capitalist used their power to push the world to advance so that they could prosper with no concerns to the possible effects on the economy, which would have been most detrimental to the proletariat. For Marx, this showed that capitalists’ self-interest pushed economic progress, which led to societal progress but also risked crisis. Capitalism not only affected society through the creation and separation of social classes but also in influencing societal progress and social relations.
Next I would like to define and connect means of production and capital. The means of production refers to institutions or establishments, such as: factories, offices, or any places of business that are privately owned. Marx sees financial interest in these foundations as deficient in relation to the return on investment created by the workers who make them valuable. Under Marx’s theory of value, these establishments are only valuable as a result of the workers’ labor and not the financial or capitalistic investment. Capital can therefore be defined as the money
Marx’s primarily aims to explain how communism will free men, end the class struggle. The work argues that class struggles, and the exploitation of one class by another is the source of all inequality. Marx’s theories become one the motivating force behind all historical developments. The work strongly advocates the freedom of the proletariats which Marx’s claims can only be achieved when property and other goods cease to be privately owned. He see’s that private property has been a problem through out history, capital that aids the ruling class to maintain control. Marx argues that the lower class come together in a revolution and gain power and eventually take the power away from the upper class.
Capitalism is seen as the American Dream with so many possibilities to become a success. Marx does not see capitalism this way. In fact, he sees it as the exact opposite. Rather than living a meaningful life, Marx thinks that because of capitalism that people live an alienated life. He thinks that we are dominated by impersonal powers and that people do not have control over their own life when capitalism is in the way. Marx says, “the positing of social activity, the consolidation of our product as a real power over us, growing out of our control.” Marx imagines society pre and post capitalism and sees it as a better place. He thinks that if we drastically reorganized our economic system, alienation could be abolished. One of Marx’s biggest claims is that because of work, people stress themselves
when conducting my readings for this assignment i was really confused at first, it was like i was reading another language. Marx writes in a very weird confusing way. after reading, reading, and reading i finally started to get it little by little.
Karl Marx’s viewed capitalism as something that was negative for our society, but that would eventually become a positive. Because of capitalism, the bourgeoisie (upper and middle class) would often oppress the proletarians (working class). In The Communist Manifesto he discusses how capitalism is part of the transition to communism. Marx
At the time Marx started writing his theories, the Industrial Revolution was taking place. Feudalism had been done away with, and the people who had been living on the common land allowed to them by lords were forced to leave. Without land or a livelihood that had previously been found in farming, people flocked to the cities to find work. With the Industrial Revolution also came an advance in technology. Ambitious people with enough capital goods and money started factories and soon came to be known as capitalists. An economy based on capitalism, a system that revolves around private ownership of the means of production, typically by a select few, was born. With the flood of newcomers to the cities, there were more than enough people to work the factories, so the capitalists did not have to take into account the workers opinions for fear of losing laborers. Marx felt that this allowed the capitalists to exploit their workers and not pay them what their labor should be worth. He also felt that capitalism was a system that thrived off of havoc and
Karl Marx’s critique of political economy provides a scientific understanding of the history of capitalism. Through Marx’s critique, the history of society is revealed. Capitalism is not just an economic system in Marx’s analysis. It’s a “specific social form of labor” that is strongly related to society. Marx’s critique of capitalism provides us a deep
Marx's ideas on labor value are very much alive for many organizations working for social change. In addition, it is apparent that the gap between the rich and poor is widening on a consistent basis. According to Marx, the course of human history takes a very specific form which is class struggle. The engine of change in history is class opposition. Historical epochs are defined by the relationship between different classes at different points in time. It is this model that Marx fleshes out in his account of feudalism's passing in favor of bourgeois capitalism and his prognostication of bourgeois capitalism's passing in favor of proletarian rule. These changes are not the reliant results of random social, economic, and political events; each follows the other in predictable succession. Marx responds to a lot of criticism from an imagined bourgeois interlocutor. He considers the charge that by wishing to abolish private property, the communist is destroying the "ground work of all personal freedom, activity, and independence". Marx responds by saying that wage labor does not properly create any property for the laborer. It only creates capital, a property which works only to augment the exploitation of the worker. This property, this capital, is based on class antagonism. Having linked private property to class hostility, Marx
Marx, K. (1998). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume Three. In E. b. Engels, (p. Chapter 5). ElecBook London .
Marx understanding of society shift into modernism lead to develop a form of communism that would come to be known as Marxism, communism is the economic thought of Marxism. Marx understands that Modernism calls for society to embrace equality for the betterment of society. Part of the problem with Capitalism comes from its exploitation of the working class; Marx understands this problem to be a vein of Pre-modernism and not a pillar of Modernism. Marx calls for the working class to rise up over their bourgeoisie oppressors and seize the equality that rightfully belongs to them. “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other – bourgeoisie and proletariat. (Communist pg. 9)” If society wants to embrace modernism, then society needs to shift its focus from fighting each other and one exploiting another to a classless society. Marx highly criticizes the bourgeoisie in The Communist Manifesto, and this stems from the problems they created for themselves and for the rest of society. In their attempt to gain more power, land, and resources, their material conditions, upon the prominence which their families had been formed, were dissipating due to the lack of foresight and selfish greed. If the Bourgeoisie continues to exploit the proletariat then society will head to conflict, as is expected of Pre-modernism, but if the Bourgeoisie cease its exploitation and relinquish its power for the group,
Marx's most famous work, "The Communist Manifesto," attempts to explain the goals of Communism, as well as his theory, which underlies it. The Manifesto begins with the important claim, "A spectre is haunting Europe--the spectre of Communism," used to explain the growing power of the bourgeoisie class in Europe, or the employers of the employees (Marx Manifesto, Intro).
Economic globalization has become the most important feature and a general trend of present world economic development. Globalization is a phenomenon and also a process of development of mankind and human society (Hamilton, 2008). It is the essential feature of the modern age. Globalization is the cross-border flows of capital and goods, including capital, labour, technology and natural resources (Bożyk, Misala & Puławski, 2002). Economic globalization is a historical process, and the germination of it could date back to the 16th century. After the industrial revolution, capitalist commodity economy, modern industry and transportation have been developing rapidly. The world market was fast expanded and the foreign trade was