Factors that Caused the Demographic and Economic Decline of Detroit in Regards to the Marxist Theory

However, the functionalist ideology that rewards enjoyed by the wealthy are acceptable due to their social importance does not thoroughly constitute the cause of economic inequality (Colomy 31). Karl Marx, a known proponent of the conflict theory, exemplifies the dilemma of economic inequality through the relationship of the the proletariat and the capitalists. The proletariat or the labour worker and the capitalists are involved in a revolving system of exploitation. The capitalist pays his worker less to produce a surplus (Marx 479). It is the lucrative profit that is obtained through the capitalist industry that fuels this vicious cycle of exploitation. The worker produces the

When you hear about the city Detroit do you ever think of it as a city that needs to be gentrified? Gentrification is the process in which renovating or improving a house or district so that it accepts to middle-class taste. Gentrifying the city of Detroit is a great thing because the city needs to show improvement, develop into a better place, and it needs to increase its population numbers from a low rate to a more advanced rate.

Some people believe that Detroit is comparable to a blank canvas. A place where an opportunity is lurking right around the corner. They imagine it as a deserted place, in which a businessman can create anything they dream of. However, the harsh reality is, Detroit is not a blank canvas. It has been splattered with an era of prominence, scribbled on with the invention of the automobile, and engraved with a history of racism and corruption. Although much of Detroit’s glory has been stripped away, there are still people who exist in the city’s remnants. Actual people, with actual families, actual homes, and actual lives. When outsiders talk about the city’s revival, they are often forgetting about these people, or the actual citizens of

Detroit, many call it the worst place in America, other detroiters like myself call it home. It takes a strong person to be able to withstand all the things going on around you. For those who know it, it’s a place that has many memories that can not be erased, things that most citizens have no recollection of, and secrets the government will never release to the public. Detroit’s truths are only comprehended by a few. The drugs, murder, rape, hospital abuse, and even corruption within the government. Many who are unfortunate enough to bear the weight of Detroit’s burdens have often told stories about their experiences. This, however, is not a review of all those stories but a personal terror.

On July 18, 2013 The City of Detroit became the largest city in United States history to filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in the amount was 20 billion dollars (Bomey,Priddle,Snavely 2013). How does once an productive city fall so far it has resort to filing for bankruptcy? This story of Detroit's bankruptcy starts in the 1950's. The City of Detroit has its highest population to date which is 1.85 million,which includes 290,000 manufacturing jobs (Weber,2013). With the promise of jobs that the City of Detroit offers, this attracts many African Americans from the south to move to the City of Detroit to find work. However many strikes begin to happen because many of their whites counterparts did not want to work with African Americans at that time. Next there is the expansion of the Big 3 (Ford, Chrysler, General Motors) many of these factories were not built in the City of Detroit, they were built in the suburbs of the City of Detroit. This led to many middle class whites to move from the City of Detroit to the suburbs for jobs and to start a new life for their family. Third there is the development of technology, majority of the jobs located in factories are done

The population, which is 85% black, has shrunk from 180,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 79,000 today. Its poverty rate is 38%; both the per-capita murder rate and the high-school dropout rate are among the highest in the country” (“Reinvention in the rust belt”). A community like Gary is just one example of the thousands spread out throughout the Midwest/ “Rust Belt” region, where the community simply just continues to deteriorate. One last example of these decaying communities is Youngstown, Ohio, where a half-century prior was home to a robust economy with a strong blue-collar, working, family minded community mentality. According to John Russo, a professor of labor studies at Youngstown

Detroit was once one of America’s biggest and most important cities. Motor City, home to most car manufacturers in America. Had a thriving economy with all the manufacturing jobs involving automobiles. This city of 1.8 million people in 1950, is now only about 700,000. The death of Detroit was caused by many factors. Especially the changing job market and industry relocation. Many companies moved away from Detroit, either into the suburbs or other countries it was cheaper to produce products in. This lead to a massive population decline in Detroit. The next cities to suffer this, Seattle and Portland.

The City of Detroit, Michigan filed for Chapter 9 Bankruptcy in July 2013, becoming the largest U.S. municipality to do so in U.S. history (Stone et al 2015). The state of Michigan does not allow a municipality to file for Chapter 9 of bankruptcy “until after the state has first intervened and appointed an emergency manager” (Skeel 2013, p.1065). In terms of the financial history of Detroit, “whereas some municipal bankruptcies can be traced to one primary cause, the factors that led Detroit’s bankruptcy are multiple and cumulative”( Stone et al 2015, p.91). Despite this, the cause for implementing a fiscal control board like the one in Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico is the same for Detroit: the city lost the ability to meet

The mayor before the bankruptcy and the emergency manager after him worked on a project once known as Detroit Works. In 2010, Mayor Bing made it clear the project was explicitly about rightsizing the city and

July 18, 2013, Detroit Michigan became the largest city in United States history to filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in the amount was $20 billion dollars (Bomey, Priddle, Snavely 2013). How does once a productive city fall so far it has resorted to filing for bankruptcy? Detroit’s bankruptcy starts in the 1950’s. Detroit’s has its highest population 1.85 million, which includes 290,000 manufacturing jobs (Weber,2013). Having an abundance of jobs, this attracts many African-Americans to relocate to Detroit. However many strikes begin to happen because many of their whites counterparts did not want to work with African Americans at that time. Next the expansion Ford, Chrysler, General Motors. These factories were not built in Detroit, however,

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

Industrialization has led to increased globalization and urbanization over the past 250 years. As urban populations around the world continue to grow, one wonders how that growth effects communities within these urban centers. While economic and population growth have become homogeneous as it regards to metropolitan areas being able to produce on a global scale; studies show that this phenomena contributes to and exacerbates displacement, economic inequality, and cultural/ethnic loss in effected communities. I will discuss how economic growth effects established communities, particularly two of the seventy-seven official communities in the City of Chicago. The narrative of the importance of economic growth and its positive contributions to

The philosophy of Karl Marx begins with the belief that humans are inherently cooperative with common characteristics and shared ends. To human beings, life is considered an object and therefore, humans make their “life-activity itself the object of his will and of his consciousness” (Tucker 76). In other words, humans are able to think, imagine, and “produce even when he is free from physical need and only truly produces in freedom therefrom” (p. 76). It exemplifies that idea that humans not only have the capability to create things for survival but express themselves in what they produce, within the standards of the human race or universally. When capitalist wage-labor enters the picture, it forces these shared ends and the freedom of expression in human production to cease, causing a rise of competitiveness among

Karl Marx emphasized the distribution of resources determines how social reality and existence are structured and experienced. He viewed society as a struggle between capitalists and workers, known as class conflict. The bourgeoisie, the owners of the means of production, exploited the proletariat, the oppressed class not owning the means of production, by giving them wages less than the value they produced. Marx as well as his associate, Fredrick Engels argued that the proletariat should rise and revolt against the bourgeoisie. Marx also emphasized the importance of the dialectical process of social change. Dialectic is the theory of resolving conflict and argument. Dialectic is the thesis, or original idea versus the antithesis, or opposing idea ultimately ending in a new idea that combines both the thesis and antithesis forming a synthesis. Dialectical materialism, rising-up against capitalism, was the most extreme form of social dialectic. Marx believed the only reasonable synthesis was to overthrow capitalism in favor of communism. One of the fall backs to this synthesis was the false consciousness, where members of a specific class reflect themselves as “I” and “me” versus “we” and “our”. Until the proletariat change their views of “I am being oppressed by my boss!”, to “We are being opposed by our boss!” there would be no revolution.